A quick reminder that at 2 a.m. on November 2nd (that's late Saturday/early Sunday), groggy Americans will turn their clocks back one hour, marking the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST). The federal law that established "daylight time" in the U.S. does not require any area to observe daylight saving time. But if a state chooses to observe DST, it must follow the starting and ending dates set by the law. From 1986 to 2006 this has been the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October, but starting in 2007, it is observed from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, adding about a month to daylight saving time and meaning the children get an extra hour of daylight for Trick or Treating! :-) ~~~ New Federal Law—Springing Forward in March, Back in November ~~~ In August 2005, Congress passed an energy bill that included extending Daylight Saving Time by about a month. Beginning in 2007, DST began the second Sunday of March and ended on the first Sunday of November. ~~~ Comparisons Around the World ~~~ More than one billion people in about 70 countries around the world observe DST in some form. Here are interesting facts about some of these countries: * Most of Canada uses Daylight Saving Time. Some exceptions include the majority of Saskatchewan and parts of northeastern British Columbia. In the fall of 2005, Manitoba and Ontario announced that like the United States, they would extend daylight time starting in 2007. * Mexico adopted DST in 1996 and now all three Mexican time zones are on the same schedule as the United States. * Also in 1996, members of the European Union agreed to observe a "summer-time period" from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. * Most countries near the equator don't deviate from standard time. * In the Southern Hemisphere, where summer arrives in what we in the Northern Hemisphere consider the winter months, DST is observed from late October to late March. * Three large regions in Australia do not participate in DST. Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland stay on standard time all year. The remaining south- central and southeastern sections of the continent (which is where Sydney and Melbourne are found) make the switch. This results in both vertical and horizontal time zones Down Under during the summer months. * China, which spans five time zones, is always eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and it does not observe DST. * In Japan, DST was implemented after World War II by the U.S. occupation. It was abandoned in 1952 as a result of strong opposition by Japanese farmers.
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