Is Daylight Saving Time Ending in 2024?
Depending on when you were born, you may think that Daylight Saving Time is just a way of life—something as natural as Earth’s rotation. In reality, though, Daylight Saving Time didn’t become a mainstay in modern life until the late 1960s when the Uniform Time Act standardized it in 1966.
While that’s when DST became common across the country, the manipulation of time in regard to daylight first occurred in the U.S. in 1918 when the US Standard Time Act was implemented as a wartime measure to extend daylight hours and conserve energy overall. The point of this history lesson is that Daylight Saving Time hasn’t always been a thing—and it may not continue to be in the future. Keep reading to learn more.
What Is Daylight Saving Time?
Daylight Saving Time is the habitual practice of clocks advancing an hour during the warmest seasons of the year to capitalize on daylight hours. DST begins on the second Sunday of March each year and concludes on the first Sunday in November. As the punny saying goes, we spring forward in March and fall back in November. This means that spring and summer evenings stay lighter for longer, while fall and winter evenings begin earlier and tend to seem darker.
Notably, Hawaii and Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation) do not observe Daylight Saving Time and stay on standard time year round.
The Daylight Saving Time Debate
Daylight Saving Time means more daylight in the evening hours. This is a highlight for folks who work and kids who go to school all day, as it offers a window of evening daylight that can be enjoyed for leisure, as opposed to responsibilities. Because many people love the idea of longer, brighter days, permanent DST was enacted in the winter of 1974.
However, that made for much darker winter mornings, something that many career people and parents of schoolchildren couldn’t get behind as it meant commuting in the dark, which could be dangerous. (To put it in perspective, the sun currently rises around 7:15 a.m. in the dead of winter; with DST, it would rise at 8:15 a.m.) As such, the permanent DST decision was repealed in 1975.
Now, though, the debate is once again on the table. In 2022, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to make DST permanent in 2023. While the bill, dubbed the Sunshine Protection Act, was unanimously approved by the Senate, it stalled in the House of Representatives.
As of October 2024, the status of H.R.1279 - Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 on the website Congress.gov remains listed as “introduced” but not yet passed. It does not appear completely dead in the water though. In 2024, four additional representatives were added to the list of bill’s co-sponsors, including Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO-7), Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL-4), Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH-8), and Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN-9).
What Does This Mean?
Although renewed interest in permanent DST seems apparent, the bill was never passed, thus indicating that the ritual of twice-yearly clock changes remains.
When Does Daylight Saving Time End in 2024?
Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, November 3. Nowadays, thanks to technology, most people don’t have to worry about setting their primary clocks (the ones on our phones, tablets, and watches) back. That said, most appliances, not to mention analog clocks and watches, require manual transitions as we head into late fall.
You Might Also Like
