| Daylight Savings Time time bomb |
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Africa
Egypt
Egypt switches to DST on midnight of the last Thursday of April, since the weekend holiday for most Egyptians is on Friday, thus giving workers and students a chance to adjust.
Asia
China
The People's Republic of China experimented with DST from 1986, but abandoned it in the 1990s. The PRC now uses one universal time zone for all of the nation from Urumqi in the northwest to Fujian in the southeast; the size of the nation was a major factor why DST was not considered practical in China.
India
India used DST briefly during its wars with Pakistan and China.
Iran
Iran uses the Persian calendar. Thus, DST in Iran starts on the first day of Farvardin (around 21-22 March) and ends on the first day of Mehr (around 22 September).
Israel
Israel adopts Daylight Saving Time on the last Friday before April 2 at 02:00, and returns to standard time at 02:00 of the Sunday of the month of Tishrei between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Israel's Daylight Saving Time rules have changed repeatedly in recent years; there has been trouble reaching a consensus regarding Gregorian calendar end dates for DST as they are dependant on Jewish Holidays, which follow the lunar Hebrew calendar. For more on this subject, see Israeli Daylight Savings Law.
Pakistan
Pakistan experimented with DST in 2002 going from +5:00 to +6:00. It has not used DST since then.
Australia
In Australia, daylight savings time is a state/territory-based initiative. Some states/territories implement it and some do not.
New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia apply daylight savings time. Tasmania starts DST earlier than the others, usually near the beginning of October.
Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland do not.
See the Australian time zones article or this site for maps and further information on standard and daylight savings time in Australia.
Europe
All countries in Europe, except Iceland as noted below, observe daylight-saving time and change on the same date: moving clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday in March and back one hour on the last Sunday in October. In the West European (UTC), Central European (UTC+1), and East European (UTC+2) time zones the change is simultaneous: on both dates the clocks are changed everywhere at 01:00 UTC, i.e. from local times of 01:00/02:00/03:00 to 02:00/03:00/04:00 in March, and vice versa in October. (See also: European Summer Time). In Russia, however, although the changeover dates are the same, clocks are moved forward or back at 02:00 winter time in all zones. Thus in Moscow (local time = UTC+3 in winter, UTC+4 in summer), daylight-saving time commences at 23:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in March, and ends at 23:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in October.
Iceland
With Iceland observing UTC all year round, despite being at a longitude which would indicate UTC-1, the country may be said to be on continuous DST. Polar or near-polar locations such as Iceland often opt out, as summer in these locations usually brings nearly uninterrupted daylight.
North America
North America generally follows the same procedure, going by local time in each zone, each time zone switching at 02:00 LST (local standard time) to 03:00 LDT (local daylight time) on the first Sunday in April, and again from 02:00 LDT to 01:00 LST on the last Sunday in October. The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador is an exception in that the time changes take place at 00:01 local standard time and 00:01 local daylight time respectively. Also, in 1988, they experimented with Double Daylight Time, when the clocks went ahead by two hours, instead of the usual one hour. The Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed by President George W. Bush, will extend DST and might prompt neighboring countries with integrated economies and schedules (especially Canada and Mexico) to adopt these changes as well. The Canadian province of Ontario has already pledged to change its daylight savings rules to match the new US rules.
Canada
In Canada, time is under provincial, not federal, jurisdiction. The province of Saskatchewan is the only part of that country (other than northeastern British Columbia and Southampton Island) that does not use DST, that is, it does not change times in spring and fall. Saskatchewan is bisected by the 105th meridian, the central meridian of the Mountain Standard Time Zone (GMT -7), yet clocks are kept at GMT minus six hours all year long. (This policy was implemented when the Saskatchewan Time Act was passed in 1966, to solve the problems that arose when time zones varied from town to town.) Thus, in the summer months Saskatchewan is in sync with Mountain Daylight Time and in the winter months it is in sync with Central Standard Time. Observationally, this is equivalent to the province being on Mountain Daylight Time year-round, though officially the province is considered to be part of the Central time zone. The charter of the city of Lloydminster, which is bisected by the Saskatchewan–Alberta border, gives it a special exception (among areas in Saskatchewan) to use DST. Lloydminster and its immediately surrounding region in Saskatchewan use the same timekeeping routine used by Alberta, DST with Mountain Standard Time. See this document produced by Saskatchewan Government Relations for further details on Saskatchewan's time policies.
Cuba
Cuba always starts its DST on April 1 but the end date varies. Since April 2004, Cuba has remained on DST.
United States
Daylight saving time was reinstated in the United States on February 9, 1942, again as a wartime measure to conserve resources. This remained in effect until World War II began winding down and the requirement was removed on September 30, 1945. From 1945 to 1966, U.S. federal law did not address daylight saving time. States and localities were free to observe daylight saving time or not. This resulted in a patchwork where some areas observed DST while adjacent areas did not, and it was not unheard of to have to reset one's clock several times during a relatively short trip (e.g., bus drivers operating between Moundsville, West Virginia, and Steubenville, Ohio had to reset their watches seven times over 35 miles). The U.S. federal Uniform Time Act of 1966 mandated that daylight saving time begin nationwide on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October. Any state that wanted to be exempt from daylight saving time could do so by passing a state law, provided that it exempt the entire state. The law was amended in 1972 to permit states that straddle a time zone boundary to exempt the entire area of the state lying in one time zone. The law was amended again in 1986 to begin daylight saving time on the first Sunday in April, to take effect the following year. In response to the 1973 energy crisis, daylight saving in the United States was begun earlier in both 1974 and 1975, commencing on the first Sunday in January (January 6) in the former year and the last Sunday in February (February 23) in the latter. Starting March 11, 2007, daylight saving time will be extended another four to five weeks, from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November. The change was introduced by the Energy Policy Act of 2005; the House had originally approved a motion that would have extended DST even further. Proponents claimed that the extension would save "the equivalent of" 10,000 barrels of oil per day, but this figure was based on U.S. Department of Energy information from the 1970s, the accuracy and relevance of which the DoE no longer stands by. There is very little recent research on what the actual positive effects, if any, might be. (See this article, for example.) The extension, which puts the U.S. out of step with other countries in North America (for example Canada), was greeted by criticism from the airline industry and those concerned for the safety of children traveling to school in the dark before the late sunrise (see this article for example). An additional issue raised by this extension is that it requires reconfiguration of virtually every computer in the United States. Most computers are programmed to adjust automatically for DST, but they do so based on static tables stored directly on the computer itself. In order to change the dates and times at which the automatic jump to or from DST occurs, these tables must be modified, which requires some sort of manual intervention by a human being in the great majority of cases. A two-minute procedure for updating a computer, multiplied by a hundred million computers, represents nearly 1700 years of full-time labor. More difficult to quantify is the amount of labor and money that may be spent correcting errors that arise due to a failure to update computers. Certain types of information systems (those that schedule future events with reference to UTC, for example) are almost guaranteed to encounter serious desynchronization problems unless both computers and databases are carefully updated—in some cases by hand.
Arizona
Most of Arizona does not observe DST. However, the large Navajo Indian Reservation within it does.
Hawaii
Hawaii does not observe DST.
Indiana
DST is a long-standing controversy in Indiana, not only as an agricultural state, but also because the border separating the Eastern and Central time zones divides the state. In the past, neighboring communities sometimes ended up one or even two hours apart. Being out-of-sync with neighboring states and the national changing of clocks, it is argued, has a negative economic impact on the state. It has been demonstrated that some businesses have located out of state due to the time-related confusion. Prior to October 30, 2005, the state has three kinds of time zones:
* 77 counties, most of the state, are on Eastern Standard Time but do not use DST;
* 5 counties near Chicago, Illinois and 5 counties in the southwestern corner of the state are on Central Standard Time and do use DST; and
* 2 counties near Cincinnati, Ohio and 3 counties near Louisville, Kentucky are on Eastern Standard time but do observe DST. Their observance of DST is unofficial in this case, as a strict reading of the Uniform Time Act would not allow for this situation, but by observing DST, they remain synchronized with the greater Louisville and Cincinnati metropolitan areas.
On April 29, 2005, the Indiana legislature voted to begin observing daylight-saving time in 2006. Currently, most of the state is in the Eastern time zone; however, its time zone is currently under federal review, as discussed in this article. There was further controversy after this passed, as some people that supported it initially had thought that the time would fall back an extra hour in winter instead of going ahead an extra hour in summer. On October 25, 2005, the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the proposed time-zone boundary, published a tenative plan [1], which is as follows:
* 77 counties, most of the state, will be on Eastern Standard Time and will use DST.
* The 5 counties near Chicago, Illinois and 5 counties in the southwestern corner of the state that were originally in Central Standard Time remain in Central Standard Time and will use DST.
* Five additional counties, two near Chicago (St. Joseph and Starke) and three in the southwestern corner (Knox, Pike, and Perry) will be moved to Central Standard Time and will use DST.
The plan, though, is not final, and local hearings will be held in November to hear the residents' opinions on the subject.
Mexico
Mexico has adopted DST nationwide, even in its tropical regions, because of its increasing economic ties to the United States. The Mexican state of Sonora does not observe DST because it borders on the U.S. state of Arizona, which also does not observe DST.
South America
Chile
Chile switches to DST at 24:00 on the second Saturday in October and reverts to Local Standard Time (LST) at 24:00 on the second Sunday the following March. The current law which affects the entire country was enacted in 1970, but it had observed the practice as early as 1927 when the country had been divided into two distinct time zones. In specific years the starting and ending dates have been modified for political or climatic reasons.
Brazil
Brazil adopted DST for the first time in 1931, but uninterruptedly since 1985 in southern states (south, southeast regions and states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul). Starting and ending dates are variable: normally, Brazilian DST starts at 00:00 on an October (rarely November) Sunday and ends at 00:00 on a February Sunday. |
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