Wednesday marks the start of the fall season and while our clocks “fall back, ’’ as the popular expression goes, in autumn, it doesn’t happen until November. Daylight Saving Time always ends on the first Sunday in November and this year, that will occur on November 7 at 2:00 a.m. local time.
So, there’s no need to change your clocks before you go to bed on Tuesday, and think twice before staying up extra late because you also won’t be getting an extra hour of sleep on Wednesday.
While Daylight Saving Time is an artificial creation, the start of the fall season is based on astronomy. On Wednesday, when the autumnal equinox occurs, the sun will be exactly above the Earth’s equator and there will be about equal hours of day and night. Beginning on Thursday, the amount of daylight will start to wane and the nights will seem longer until the winter solstice in December, the shortest daylight period in the Northern Hemisphere, when daylight starts to increase.
Since Daylight Saving Time was created by Congress, there’s some debate as to whether it’s necessary. Intended to conserve energy by increasing daylight hours, it requires states that participate to change their clocks twice a year. While states can opt out of Daylight Saving Time, they must adhere to Standard Time, but legislators are looking to change that.
Senator Marco Rubio has tried repeatedly to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, negating the need for Americans to change their clocks at all. Last year, Rubio and Senator Rick Scott introduced a bill that would have kept America on Daylight Saving Time until November 7, 2021. Amid the pandemic, Rubio argued that the government asked “a lot of the American people” and called the additional daylight hour “critical” to helping families and children.
Rubio, Scott and several other colleagues, including Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Ron Wyden and Ed Markey, reintroduced a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.
“Americans’ lifestyles are very different than they were when Daylight Saving Time began more than a century ago,” Whitehouse said. “Making Daylight Saving Time permanent will end the biannual disruptions to daily life and give families more daylight hours to enjoy after work and school.”
Hawaii and Arizona don’t participate in Daylight Saving Time and the legislators’ bill wouldn’t force them to observe it. While legislators noted voters in 16 states expressed interest in making Daylight Saving Time permanent, the legislation failed to move through Congress, which would be required to enact the change.
So, for now, clocks will once again change on November 7, falling back one hour.
title: “When Do We Fall Back Time Change Date For Autumn Season” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-28” author: “Anna Pritchett”
Tuesday marks the first day of the new season, and the saying that we “fall back” into daylight saving time can cause confusion as to when the change occurs. However, the first day of fall and the turning back of the clocks have little to do with each other, and America won’t return to standard time until November 1.
On that morning, at 2 a.m. to be exact, clocks will be turned back one hour to move from daylight saving time to standard time. Since this occurs in the fall, which goes until December 21 this year, the saying “fall back” has been used as a reminder that people will gain an hour of sleep, with “spring forward” indicating they will lose an hour.
Cellphone clocks make the change automatically, and it’s common for those who have analog or digital clocks that must be changed manually to do it before they go to bed. This year, though, there’s an effort to prevent that change from happening at all.
On Wednesday, Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott introduced a bill that would keep the United States on daylight saving time until November 2021. Rubio called the additional daylight hour “critical” to helping families and children endure this “challenging school year,” as well as being beneficial to lowering crime rates and improving mental health.
“Our government has asked a lot of the American people over the past seven months, and keeping the nation on daylight saving time is just one small step we can take to help ease the burden,” Rubio said in a statement.
As governor of Florida, Scott signed the Sunshine Protection Act to keep the state on daylight saving time year-round. However, the measure can’t be enacted without Congress taking action, as the Uniform Time Act of 1966 allows states to opt out of only daylight saving time, not standard time. President Donald Trump gave his approval to making daylight saving time permanent in a March 2019 tweet, and it’s a change Rubio has pushed for on a national level at least twice.
If his congressional colleagues won’t get on board for a permanent fix, Rubio said, it is time for the temporary solution to provide American families with “a year of stability” during a time when a pandemic has forced many changes upon them.
To avoid a changing of the clocks in November, the bill would have to pass the House and Senate and get Trump’s signature. If it does become law, clocks also won’t “spring forward” in March, as they’re scheduled to do.
title: “When Do We Fall Back Time Change Date For Autumn Season” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-06” author: “Laura Sykes”
As the daylight wanes, lovers of the light get a bit of respite when they turn their clocks back as part of daylight savings. An easy way to remember the two moments we change the clocks is that we “fall back” in autumn and “spring forward,” in, well, almost spring, so it would be reasonable to assume that the first day of fall was one of those days.
However, the only change the first day of fall signifies is the start of a new season. Marked by the equinox, which occurs once in autumn and once in spring, Monday will have near equal parts of daylight and darkness.
So, when do we change the clocks back? Not until November, I’m afraid. Daylight savings time ends on the first Sunday in November. So, clocks should be turned back at 2:00 a.m. local time on November 3. This means that on the early morning of November 3, people will get an extra hour of sleep because at 2:00 a.m. local time, clocks will read 1:00 a.m.
Daylight Savings Time has been attributed to Benjamin Franklin, although, the Department of Defense noted that it didn’t become the norm in the United States until a few hundred years later. In March 1918, Congress approved and then-President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Standard Time Act. This act allowed for daylight hours to be added into the day to help save energy costs during World War I.
However, the law was only in effect for a brief period and it wasn’t until World War II that the law was once again implemented to help conserve energy. It was later repealed again in 1945 when the war ended and individual states were able to establish their own standard time.
In 1966, though, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which set a national standard time. It permanently established daylight saving time from Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. However, the law changed again–numerous times–to change when the “fall back” and the “spring forward” occurs.
Today, we fall back on the first Sunday in November and spring forward on the second Sunday in March.
Not every state observes Daylight Savings Time, though, and Arizona and Hawaii passed state mandates allowing them to abstain from the observance.
