Community Corner

Spring Ahead: Daylight Saving Time Begins Sunday

Residents need to wind their clocks forward an hour on Sunday for daylight saving time.

Don't forget to '' this weekend.

At 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 11, we'll be "Springing" our clocks forward for daylight saving time. The good news? Sunset will be an hour later. The bad news? We'll lose an hour of our day.

Fire department, rescue and Long Island Red Cross officials also recommend that residents change batteries on all smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and make sure that systems are working properly. Now's also a good time to change your lightbulbs to more energy-efficientones, according to LIPA.

Find out what's happening in Half Hollow Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The annual tradition of Daylight Saving Time has crept forward a bit in recent years. We used to Spring forward on the first Sunday in April and Fall back on last Sunday in October.

However, a few years ago, Congress changed the date - adding more Daylight Saving Time to the calendar. This year it'll run from March 11 until November 4 - unless you're in Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands. They don't participate in Daylight Saving Time.

Find out what's happening in Half Hollow Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Around the world roughly 75 countries and territories have at least one location that observes Daylight Saving Time, according to TimeandDate.com. On the other hand 164 don't observe the time change at all.

Brief History
According to a Huffington Post report, Benjamin Franklin has been credited with the idea of Daylight Saving Time. However, Britain and Germany began using the concept in World War I to conserve energy, according to the Washington Post.

The United States used Daylight Saving Time for a brief time during the war, but it didn't become widely accepted in here until after World War II.

In 1966 the Uniform Time Act outlined that clocks should be set forward on the last Sunday in April and set back the last Sunday in October.

That law was amended in 1986 to start Daylight Saving Time on the first Sunday in April, although the new system wasn't implemented until 1987. The end date was not changed, however, and remained the last Sunday in October until 2006.

Today Daylight Saving Time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. The time change will precede the first day of Spring and the Vernal Equinox, which is set to take place at 1:14 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 20.


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