Hoosiers Ate My Brain

A Note on Time

There's seems to be some confusion with a few folks I've talked to (and who've posted) who think that the sun will be coming up at 8:30 a.m. this time next winter. To clarify: In the winter, the sun will rise and set at the same time it always has. We are currently on Eastern Standard Time. The sun came up at 7:30 (or earlier) this morning. The upcoming observation of DST will not change our winter time at all. In the past, we've just remained on Eastern Standard Time year round.

DST will change our summer time. If we had observed DST this year, we would have "sprung forward" in the spring and "fallen back" in the fall. In the summer, we would have moved our clocks ahead and the sun would have gone down an hour later (giving us an extra hour of daylight in the evening and having the sun rise at 5:30 a.m. instead of 4:30 a.m.) We would have fallen back to the current time we're on (and will remain on): Eastern Standard Time.

Now this doesn't factor in that the Federal Government has extended DST a couple of weeks on either end for next year, so, yes, there will be a bit of adjustment -- but the whole country will be involved. Everyone who's been through DST knows there are times of the year where it's dark really early, then the time changes and it's light again! (Yes, it's confusing, but once they've been through it a couple of times, Hoosiers will be changing their clocks like old pros.)

posted by braingirl @ 8:13 AM