RICHMOND, Va. -- This is the weekend we change the clocks. Although many people do not like the earlier sunsets, most people do enjoy an extra hour to sleep. Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday when we "fall back" one hour to Eastern Standard Time.
It is also a good time to change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. We will stay on Eastern Standard Time until March 10, 2019, when Daylight Saving Time begins again.
Here is how it will affect the sunrise and sunset times. Keep this in mind for your travels on Monday. There will be more daylight for the morning bus stop times, but it will be dark by around 5:30 p.m. We will continue to lose daylight until the end of December. After the start of winter, our amount of daylight will slowly increase heading into January.
Here are some facts about the twice-yearly time change:
- Sunday, March 11, 2018 - Daylight Saving Time began at 2 a.m. this year
- It is "Daylight Saving Time" (singular), not "Daylight Savings Time" (plural). We are "saving daylight" for the end of the day.
- Since 2007, Daylight Saving Time starts in the United States on the second Sunday in March, and ends on the first Sunday in November.
The timeline of how Daylight Saving Time (DST) came to be:
- 1784 - The idea of daylight saving is first conceived by Benjamin Franklin.
- 1914-1918 - Britain goes on DST during World War I.
- March 19, 1918 - The Standard Time Act establishes time zones and daylight saving. DST is repealed in 1919, but continues to be recognized in certain areas of the United States.
- 1945-1966 - There is no federal law regarding DST.
- 1966 - The Uniform Time Act of 1966 establishes the system of uniform DST throughout the United States. The dates are the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. States can exempt themselves from participation.
- 1974-1975 - Congress extends DST in order to save energy during the energy crisis.
- 1986-2006 - DST begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the last Sunday in October.
- August 8, 2005 - President George W. Bush signs the Energy Policy Act of 2005 into law. Part of the act extends DST starting in 2007, from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
- 2007 - Under the new laws, all of Indiana now observes DST, where only certain areas of the state did before.
- Exceptions in the United States: Hawaii and most of Arizona
- The US territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and American Samoa also do not observe DST.
- About 70 countries around the world observe DST. Japan and China do not.
- Many countries near the equator do not adjust their clocks for DST.
