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Daylight Saving Time

source: idea.org

Starting in 2007, most of the United States began Daylight Saving Time on the second Sunday in March and will revert to standard time on the first Sunday in November. In 2007, that day is November 4th. In the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time.

Spring forward, fall back
When Daylight Saving Time begins, clocks “spring forward” an hour, effectively moving an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. As the period ends, clocks “fall back” to their original time.

Year	DST Begins	DST Ends
2007	March 11	November 4
2008	March 9	November 2
2009	March 8	November 1

For the U.S. and its territories, Daylight Saving Time is NOT observed in Arizona, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, or the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. And if you've spent any time in the sweltering summer sun in those regions you can understand why residents don't need another hour of sunlight.

Daylight Saving Time gives us the opportunity to enjoy sunny summer evenings by moving our clocks an hour forward in the spring. Yet, the implementation of Daylight Saving Time has been fraught with controversy since Benjamin Franklin first conceived of the idea in 1784. Even today, regions and countries routinely change their approaches to Daylight Saving Time.

Switch at 2:00 a.m.

In the U.S., clocks change at 2:00 a.m. local time. In spring, clocks spring forward from 1:59 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.; in fall, clocks fall back from 1:59 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.
In the U.S., 2:00 a.m. was originally chosen as the changeover time because it was practical and minimized disruption.

Most people are at home and this is the time when the fewest trains are running. It is late enough to minimally affect bars and restaurants, and it prevents the day from switching to yesterday, which would be confusing. It is early enough that the entire continental U.S. switches by daybreak, and the changeover occurs before most early shift workers and early churchgoers are affected.

Widespread confusion was created during the 1950s and 1960s when each U.S. locality could start and end Daylight Saving Time as it desired. One year, 23 different pairs of Daylight Saving Time start and end dates were used in Iowa alone.
In Antarctica, there is no daylight in the winter and months of 24-hour daylight in the summer. But many of the research stations there observe Daylight Saving Time anyway, to synchronize with their supply stations in Chile or New Zealand.
Equatorial and tropical countries (lower latitudes) generally do not observe Daylight Saving Time. Since the daylight hours are similar during every season, there is no advantage to moving clocks forward during the summer.

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