Daylight saving time is nearly here, when and why we 'spring forward'

Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, March 10 at 2 a.m. when residents of most states in the U.S., including Florida, move their clocks forward by one hour.

The change shifts daylight from the morning to the afternoon, meaning later sunrises and sunsets. Before the time change, Saturday's sunrise in West Palm Beach will be about 6:35 a.m. with a sunset at about 6:25 p.m. On Sunday, sunrise will be 7:34 a.m. with sunset at 7:26 p.m.

The daylight saving time discussion — the annual annoyance or optimism that comes with moving clocks one hour forward at 2 a.m. — has raged for decades in the U.S., spawning unusual alliances between powerful lobbies in favor and against tampering with Father Time.

Are the clocks going back in 2024 and when does the time change?

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended the length of daylight saving time to eight months, from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. It went into effect in 2007.

Now, the eight months of daylight saving time more than eclipses standard time. States can opt out of daylight saving time, a move that puts them on standard time permanently.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has made efforts over the past several years to end the yo-yoing time changes with the so-called Sunshine Protection Act. State lawmakers also passed a 2018 bill that would allow Florida to remain on daylight saving time year-round, but it works only if Congress amends U.S. code to allow it.

What states have abolished daylight saving time?

A handful of U.S. states and territories don't bother with daylight saving time. Arizona abandoned the practice in 1968.

Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa don't adhere to it because they are so close to the equator that daylight saving time is redundant.

While states can stay on standard time permanently, they can't opt to stay on daylight saving time.

Is it daylight saving time or daylight savings time with an s?

You might be forgiven for saying "daylight savings" with an "s," but the correct term is "daylight saving time" since the practice is to "save daylight." Some people include a hyphen in the phrase, while others don't.

Don't blame the farmers for daylight saving time

Michael Downing, the author of the 2006 book “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Savings Time,” said it’s a persistent belief in the U.S. that farmers wanted the earlier start time, but, in fact, they fought it pitchfork and scythe, even taking their opposition all the way to the Supreme Court in the 1920s.

Farmers disliked daylight saving time because they needed the sun to dry the dew from their crops before they could harvest and go to market. With the sun rising an hour later, they argued they were having to wait too long to pick their produce.

At the same time, cows didn’t follow man’s clock. They needed to be milked every 12 hours and daylight saving time meant the farmer who once woke at sunrise to milk, now had to be up in the dark, using artificial light.

So who DID benefit from the time change?

The first nationwide daylight saving time law was passed in 1918 as an energy-saving measure during World War I. But it was also supported by a Boston-area department store owner Lincoln Filene, who compiled a list of the positive outcomes of daylight saving time, including “most farm products are better when gathered with dew on. They are firmer, crisper, than if the sun has dried the dew off.” But farmers balked at that idea.

Downing believes the true reason for the 1918 change was that the retail, leisure and sports industry saw benefits to daylight saving time.

More time after work, meant more time to shop, play golf and go to baseball games. The movie industry, however, was with the farmers in their opposition of the time changing, noting that people don’t go to the theater when it’s light out, Downing said.

Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Daylight saving time in Florida: Facts on moving clocks, time change