Daylight Saving Time 2024: When Does the Time Change? (2024)

Daylight Saving Time will be over before you know it! In November, we “fall back” one hour! See details about when the time changes, why we observe DST, and the short history of this clock-changingpractice.

What Is Daylight SavingTime?

Daylight Saving Time (“DST”)is the practice of moving the clocks forward one hour from Standard Time during the summer monthsand changing them backagain in the fall.

The general idea is that this allows us all to use natural daylight better: moving the clocks forward one hour in the spring grants us more daylight during summer evenings, while moving clocks back onehour in the fall grants us more daylight during winter mornings.

However, DST has many detractors—and rightfully so! (Read more about thisbelow.)

Daylight Saving Time 2024: When Does the TimeChange?

Daylight Saving Time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

To remember which way to set their clocks, folks often use the expression, “springforward, fallback.”

• Daylight Saving Timeends on Sunday, November 3, 2024, at 2:00 A.M. On Saturday night, clocks are set back 1 hour (i.e., gaining one hour) to “fall back.” Sunrise and sunset will be about 1 hour earlier on November 3, 2024, than the day before. There will be more light in themorning.
• Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday, March 9, 2025,at 2:00A.M. On Saturday night, clocks are set forward 1hour (i.e., losing one hour) to “spring forward.” Sunrise and sunset will be about 1 hour later on March 9, 2025, than the day before. There will bemore light in theevening.

Note: Since the time changes at 2:00 A.M., we generally change our clocks before bed onSaturday.

Daylight Saving TimeDates

(Note that DST dates are for locations in the United States and Canada only; other countriesmay follow differentdates!)

Note: In the U.S., exceptions to DST are Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and AmericanSamoa.

Is it Daylight “Saving” or “Savings”Time?

The correct term is “Daylight Saving Time“and not “Daylight Savings Time” (with an extra “s”), though many of us are guilty of saying it the wrong way.The technical explanation is that theword “saving” is singular because it acts as part of an adjective rather than averb.

Using Daylight Time (DT) Versus Standard Time (ST)

After Daylight Saving Time begins and through the summer months, the period is called “Daylight Time,” abbreviated “DT.” When Daylight Saving Time ends, we return to “Standard Time” or “ST.” This abbreviation includes the time zone. For example, Eastern Daylight Time is EDT, and Eastern Standard Time is EST. See more examplesbelow:

Time ZoneAbbreviations

After Daylight Saving Time Begins (March through November)

• Eastern Daylight Time or EDT
• Central Daylight Time or CDT
• Mountain Daylight Time or MDT
• Pacific Daylight Time or PDT

After Daylight Saving Ends (November through March)

• Eastern Standard Time or EST
• Central Standard Time or CST
• Mountain Standard Time or MST
• Pacific Standard Time or PST

The History of Daylight SavingTime

Why Did Daylight SavingTimeStart?

Should we blameBen?

Benjamin Franklin’s “An Economical Project,” written in 1784, is the earliest known proposal to “save” daylight. It was whimsical in tone, advocating laws to compel citizens to rise at the crack of dawn to save the expense ofcandlelight:

“Every morning, as soon as the Sun rises, let all the bells in every church be set ringing: and if that is not sufficient, let cannon be fired in every street to wake the sluggards effectually… . Oblige a man to rise at four in the morning, and it is probable that he will go willingly to bed at eight in the evening.”

DST’s TrueFounder?

Thefirst true proponent of Daylight Saving Time was an Englishman named William Willet. A London builder, heconceived the idea while riding his horse early one morning in 1907. He noticed that the shutters of houses were tightly closed even though the Sun had risen. In “The Waste of Daylight,” the manifesto of his personal light-saving campaign, Willet wrote, “Everyone appreciates the long, light evenings. Everyone laments their shrinkage as the days grow shorter, and nearly everyone has given utterance to a regret that the nearly clear, bright light of an early morning during Spring and Summer months is so seldom seen or used… . That so many as 210 hours of daylight are, to all intents and purposes, wasted every year is a defect in our civilization. Let England recognize and remedyit.”

Willet spent a small fortune lobbying businessmen, members of Parliament, and the U.S. Congress to put clocks ahead 20 minutes on each of the four Sundays in April and reverse the process on consecutive Sundays in September. But his proposal was met mostly with ridicule. One community opposed it on moral grounds, callingthe practice the sin of“lying” about truetime.

World War I Led to the Adoption of DST

Attitudes changed after World War I broke out. The government and citizenry recognized the need to conserve coal used for heating homes. The Germans were the first to officially adopt the light-extending system in 1915 as a fuel-saving measure during World War I. This led to the introduction in 1916 of British Summer Time: From May 21 to October 1, clocks in Britain were put an hourahead.

The United States followed in 1918 when Congress passed the Standard Time Act, establishing the time zones. However, this was amidst significant public opposition.AU.S. government Congressional Committee was formed to investigate the benefits of Daylight Saving Time. Many Americans viewed the practice as an absurd attempt to make late sleepers get up early. Others thought following “clock time” was unnatural instead of “Sun time.” A columnist in the Saturday Evening Post offered this alternative: “Why not ‘save summer’ by having June begin at the end ofFebruary?”

The matter took on new meaning in April 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson declared war. Suddenly, energy conservation was paramount, and several efforts were launched to enlist public support for changing theclocks.

A group called the National Daylight Saving Convention distributed postcards showing Uncle Sam holding a garden hoe and rifle, turning back the hands of a giant pocket watch. Voters were asked to sign and mail to their congressman postcards that declared, “If I have more daylight, I can work longer for my country. We need every hour of light.” Manhattan’s borough president testified to Congress that the extra hour of light would be a boon to home gardening and, therefore, increase the Allies’ food supply. Posters chided, “Uncle Sam, your enemies have been up and are at work in the extra hour of daylight—when will YOU wakeup?”

With public opinion in its favor, Congress officially declared that all clocks would be moved ahead one hour at 2:00 A.M. on March 31, 1918. (Canada adopted a similar policy later the same year.) Americans were encouraged to turn off their lights and go to bed earlier than they usually did—at around 8:00 P.M.

Farmers Did NOT Favor DST

Many Americans wrongly point to farmers as the driving force behind Daylight Saving Time. In fact, farmers were its strongest opponents and, as a group, stubbornly resisted the change from thebeginning.

When the war ended, the farmers and working-class people who had held their tongues began speaking out. They demanded an end to Daylight Saving Time, claiming it benefited only office workers and the leisure class. The controversy spotlighted the growing gap between rural and urban dwellers. As a writer for the Literary Digest put it, “The farmer objects to doing his early chores in the dark merely so that his city brother, who is sound asleep at the time, may enjoy a daylight motor ride at eight in theevening.”

The Daylight Saving Time experiment lasted only until 1920, when the law was repealed due to opposition from dairy farmers (cows ignore clocks). No fewer than 28 bills to repeal Daylight Saving Time had been introduced to Congress, and the law was removed from the books. Americans had tolerated Daylight Saving Time for about sevenmonths.

DSTReturns

The subject did notcome up again until after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the United States was once again atwar.

During World War II, Daylight Saving Timewas imposed again (year-round) to save fuel. Clocks were set one hour ahead to saveenergy.

After the war (which concluded with Japan’s final surrender on September 2, 1945), Daylight Saving Timestarted being used on and off in different states,beginning and ending on days of theirchoosing.

Local Differences andInconsistency

Inconsistent adherence to time zones among the statescreated considerable confusion with interstate bus and train service. To remedy the situation, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, establishing consistent use of Daylight Saving Time within the United States: Clocks were to be set ahead one hour on the last Sunday in April and one hour back on the last Sunday inOctober.

That was the rule, but some state legislatures made exceptions via a loophole built into the law. Residents of Hawaii and most of Arizona did not change their clocks.Residents of Indiana, which straddles the Eastern and Central time zones, were sharply divided on Daylight Saving Time: Some counties employed it, some didnot.

In 1986, the U.S. Congress approved a bill to increase the period of Daylight Saving Time, moving the start to the first Sunday in April. The goal was to conserve oil for generating electricity—an estimated 300,000 barrels annually.(In 2005, theentire state of Indiana became the 48th state to observe Daylight SavingTime.)

Daylight Saving TimeToday

The current daylight saving period was established with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which went into effect in2007.

Today, most Americans spring forward (turn clocks ahead and lose an hour) on the second Sunday in March (at 2:00 A.M.) and fall back (turn clocks back and gain an hour) on the first Sunday in November (at 2:00 A.M.).See how your sunrise and sunset times will change with our Sunrise/Set Calculator.

However, farmers’ organizations continue to lobby Congress against the practice, preferring early daylight to tend totheir fields and a Standard Time sunset for ending their work at a reasonable hour. Some farmers point out that Daylight Saving Time is deceptively misnamed. “It is a gimmick that changes the relationship between ‘Sun’ time and ‘clock’ time but saves neither time nor daylight,” says Katherine Dutro, spokesperson for the Indiana FarmBureau.

Most of Canada is on Daylight Saving Time; only portions of Saskatchewan and small pockets of British Columbia remain on Standard Time year-round. However, the practice has its detractors. In the words of a current-day Canadian poultry producer, “The chickens do not adapt to the changed clock until several weeks have gone by, so the first week of April and the last week of October are very frustrating for us.” Similarly, one Canadian researcher likened increased traffic accidents to the onset of Daylight Saving Time. Other experts insist that the extra hour of daylight reducescrime.

As of January 2023, 19 states have passed bills to end the practice of switching clocks. However, the legislation can only go into effect if federal law changes. TheUniform Time Act would need to be amended to allow such a change.In early 2022, a bill to enact permanent Daylight Saving Time unanimously passed in the Senate, but the House did not take it up, and it will now have to be reintroduced to have any chance of moving forward. See the latest on which states have passed bills to stop DST changes.

Share your thoughts about DST below—and see readers’ comments from the past. As you can see, our Almanac readers are quite passionate about thistopic!