When Is Daylight Savings Time?

When is daylight savings time? Since 2007, daylight savings time begins on the second Sunday in March at 2:00 am, and ends on the first Sunday in November, at 2:00 am.

In 1883, railroads used time zones to standardize their schedules. Sir Sanford Fleming, of Canada, helped bring about a worldwide system of keeping time. He thought it was important that the world set a standard time and time zones.

International Standard Time was adopted in 1884, at the International Prime Meridian Conference in Washington, DC. The Prime Meridian, which is longitude zero, was agreed upon by all. It goes through the Observatory of Greenwich in Greenwich, England. Along with the Prime Meridian, the conference also adopted 24 time zones, each being about an hour apart that circle the globe.  

When Is Daylight Savings Time?

The span of Daylight Savings Time has been changed a lot over the years. After the Prime Meridian Conference, the railroads in the United States started using standard time and time zones. Finally, a law was passed making them official in 1918. 

It was named the Standard Time Act and it also established Daylight Savings Time. It was observed for two years, but was very unpopular, so it was repealed in 1919. Daylight Savings Time was again established and was observed from 1942-1945. After World War II was over, the states were given the decision whether or not to observe it.

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 set the times for Daylight Savings Time to be from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. This law still allowed individual states to decide if they would participate.

During the “energy crisis”, the times were changed to begin on January the 6th in 1974, and the next year, it started on February 23rd. After that year, the starting time went back to the last Sunday in April.

In 1986, another law was passed, this time changing the starting time again.  Taking effect in 1987, the starting date for Daylight Savings Time was the first Sunday in April.

Finally, in 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and with that bill, they changed the dates of Daylight Savings Time, to extend its length. So from 2007 on, Daylight Savings Time began on the second Sunday in March and ended on the first Sunday in November. So, when is daylight savings time? As of 2010, it is still from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.  

Saving Energy

One of the main reasons we observe Daylight Savings Time is to save energy.  Most of the electricity needed in our homes is used in the evenings. Moving the clock ahead one hour really does reduce our energy use. You might think you counter those savings by using more electricity in the mornings, but that is not the case. You will use a bit more energy in the morning, but you save much more in the evening. In a U.S. Department of Transportation study, it was shown that we reduce our electricity usage by about one percent during every day of Daylight Savings Time.  

Worldwide Daylight Savings Time

Some people don’t need to know the answer to, “When is daylight savings time?” because they live in a region that does not observe it. In the United States, Hawaii and Arizona do not change their clocks, neither do the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, nor American Samoa. All of Mexico and most of Canada observe it.

Around the world, there are 70 countries that, at least partly, observe Daylight Savings Time and in the Southern Hemisphere, it is observed from late October to late March. China, Japan, and India are the only major industrialized countries that do not participate in DST. Countries that are located in the tropics do not have Daylight Savings Time, because the daylight hours are very similar all year, so there is no need to do it.