Spring forward, fall back Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday

  • Published
  • By Patti Schwab-Holloway
  • 340th Public Affairs
Daylight savings time begins each year at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March, with clocks moving ahead one hour. Standard time returns each year at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November, with clocks moving one hour back. This year it happens on Nov. 7 when we can move our clocks back one hour and "gain" an extra hour!

But daylight saving time (and not daylight savings time with an "s") wasn't just created to confuse our lives and mess up all the clocks in the house. Most people assume that the origin of daylight savings time had something to do with farming, but it was not. According to California's Energy Commission, www.energy.ca.gov/daylightsaving.html, Congress enacted daylight saving time as a way to conserve U.S. resources during World War I and again during World War II.

By mid-20th century daylight saving time was being widely observed in the United States, but not by every state, and not always on the same date.  So a Federal law was passed to ensure the time would begin and end each year on a determined day to avoid much confusion. The Department of Transportation currently handles the laws dealing with time change and daylight savings.

Prior to 2007, daylight saving time began in April and standard time resumed in October. The law extending daylight savings time by almost two months was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2005.

Future Daylight Saving Time Dates:
· 2011: March 13 and November 6
· 2012: March 11 and November 4
· 2013: March 10 and November 3
· 2014: March 9 and November 2
· 2015: March 8 and November 1

For more information on Daylight Saving Time visit: www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/
boundaries/a_savingtime.html
or www.energy.ca.gov/daylightsaving.html.