Soon, North Carolina will no longer be in daylight saving time. This means that the clocks will “fall back” one hour, giving us an extra hour of sleep.
The first Sunday in November is when most of the U.S. goes back to standard time after daylight saving time. It starts on the second Sunday in March, just in time for spring.
Time changes will end this year on November 3 at 2 a.m.
The times we change our clocks have been set for almost 60 years, but daylight saving time might end one day.
It was proposed by federal politicians last year that “make daylight saving time the new, permanent standard time.” This would mean that Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. The bill has been in the House since March of last year, though.
A story from The News & Observer said that North Carolina bills introduced in the Senate and House last year would have let the state use daylight saving time all year if Congress agreed. Both died, just like other bills that have been introduced in the state over the years.
What is the purpose of daylight saving time?
For what it’s worth, daylight saving time helps you save power and light in the summer and spring.
A study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that in 2008, the extra four weeks of daylight saving time saved about 0.5% of the country’s energy every day, or 1.3 trillion watt-hours. That’s enough to power 100,000 homes for a year.
Studies have also shown that adding an extra hour of daylight has made the roads better, lowered crime rates, and helped the economy.
But some people say that darker mornings could make people who drive to work or take their kids to school more sleepy, especially in the winter.
Farmers were worried that daylight saving time would mess up their harvesting plans, it could affect religious ceremonies that use solar and lunar time, and it could take longer than expected to fix computer systems that are set to switch times twice a year.
Is daylight saving always the same time of year?
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 set the dates for when daylight saving time would begin and end across the whole country, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
However, the act lets states decide that they don’t need to follow daylight saving time because it’s against their state law.
National Conference of State Legislatures says that American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are among the U.S. regions that use permanent standard time.