Time to 'spring forward' for Daylight Saving Time

In case you didn’t know, Daylight Saving Time begins this weekend, which of course means our clocks will have to move forward an hour at 2AM Sunday morning.

Here’s a little history behind the practice of Daylight Saving:

A little info about Daylight Saving Time

beautiful sunset at the double helix park. — Beautiful sunset at McMillan Double Helix Park. (McCarley Northway / Hville Blast)

The exact dates to change times — now the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November — have changed some over the years, much like the attitudes toward the practice of DST. And some states do not observe daylight saving at all.

These days, clocks reset themselves for the most part (phones, computers, digital watches, etc), but there was a time when we had to manually set our clocks back or forward — and yes, it sometimes caused issued with people’s schedules.

Here are a few quick facts about DST:

DST has been around since World War I (to conserve fuel used in lanterns and to increase the work day for farmers). But it did not become the law of the land until the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
Hawaii and most of Arizona don’t observe DST, having opted out of the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
The U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands also don’t observe daylight saving time.

The future of Daylight Saving Time

Tennessee RiverLine — There’s nothing like a sunset on the river. (Emily Phillips / Hville Blast)

At least 22 states introduced legislation last year to switch to year-round daylight saving time, year-round standard time or allow voters to decide the issue, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Another 18 have trigger laws on the books that would take effect if Congress were to allow such a change.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined an effort in 2022 to make daylight saving time permanent across the country, becoming a cosponsor of the Sunshine Protection Act, originally introduced by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL).

However, the bill has not proceeded through Congress. So for now, the practice has to continue.

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