Did You Remember To Spring Forward 1 Hour?

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Don’t forget! Daylight Saving Time begins on Saturday night (or early Sunday morning) at 2AM.  This is where you set your clock ahead 1 hour, which means the mornings will be a little darker to start out with, but it will stay lighter longer into the afternoon.

For example, sunrise on Saturday was 6:08AM and Sunset at 5:48PM.  On Sunday it will be 7:06AM and 6:49PM.

What you may not know is, daylight saving time first became law in the United States 100 years ago, in 1918, but only lasted for one year.  The time change became law again in 1942 and was done away with in 1945.  In 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it back into law for good to take begin on the last Sunday of April and to end on the last Sunday of October.

In 2007 daylight saving time was extended another four to five weeks, from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November in coordination with the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Some states, including Massachusetts have thought about giving up changing the clocks back and forth, but so far in order to do that, other states in New England, and most likely New York, would also have to abandon Eastern time for the not-so-popular Atlantic Time.  Could you imagine if Massachusetts was one hour ahead of nearby Connecticut or Rhode Island?  That wouldn’t work out very well if you worked in Thompson but lived in Webster.

Try to be careful when you head to work on Monday – research shows that traffic accidents and fatalities go up the day after everyone changes their clocks, as people take a few days to get used to the changes.  Yes you’ll “lose” an hour of sleep tonight, but just think how happy you’ll be when it is still light out at 7PM.

One other thing, check the batteries in your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.  It is a good idea to replace the batteries in those when you are going around to set all your clocks ahead.