Daylight Savings Time - What you need to know

[Jimmy Higgins]

Daylight savings time is starting (ending?) soon this Sunday. As with most arbitrary things, there is a lot of minutia about it. So here some questions and answers regarding the annual transition of daylight savings.

• Why is there Daylight Savings?
  • The fuck we know. It might have something to do with cows.
• Is it really necessary to keep doing this year after year? Are we really saving anything?
  • Change is what communists believe in you damn pinko!
• I have a hard time remembering whether it is fall back and spring forward or fall forward and spring back, which is it?
  • Oh thanks! Now we aren't certain anymore.
• What do I need to do?
  • You need to turn the clocks and smoke detectors back one hour... or maybe it was forward.
  • Some clocks might have already adjusted, which will make it hard to figure out what fucking time it is. We recommend taking an average.
• Will the Fed changing the base lending rate impact Daylight Savings?
  • No! Why would you even think that?!
• Is there any way I can watch the official time move back?
  • Yeah, but it happens at 2 AM... or does it change to 2 AM? Regardless, unless you are watching cricket in the ICC T20 World Cup, you are going to be too asleep or too drunk to care.
• Does Australia have to turn clocks the opposite direction than us?
  • If they did daylight savings... oddly yes, but not for the reason you are thinking, it'd be because of the Coriolis effect.

 

[bilby]

Does Australia have to turn clocks the opposite direction than us?

• If they did daylight savings

Oh, Australia does Daylight Savings.

But not in every state.

And not at the same time in every state that does it.

Victoria and most but not all of New South Wales are the only two states or territories that are in the same timezone as each other all year round.

The Queensland and New South Wales border runs through the city of the Gold Coast, and as a result for half of every year you need to adjust your watch when crossing certain suburban streets, where the homes and businesses on one side are an hour ahead of those on the other side of the road.

Also, as New Years Day is in midsummer here, there's a short period every twelve months when opposing sides of a number of suburban streets are in different calendar years.

 

[Elixir]

I feel better now.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

It's time to save daylight? How am I supposed to store it?

 

[bilby]

It's time to save daylight? How am I supposed to store it?

We look after it for you. By the end of December, we will be running out of places to put it, and start sending it back.

 

[thebeave]

One year I got it mixed up and I turned the clock back an hour rather than forward. We were on mandatory weekend overtime back then, and I walk into the building on Sunday morning, and its dark and deathly quiet. For almost two hours. The security guard at the building looked at me like I had lost my marbles. It wasn't until late in the afternoon that I realized my mistake. D'oh!

 

[Ford]

I live in Arizona. We don't need to save daylight time. We've got plenty.

Unfortunately my employer is based in San Francisco, and I need to adjust my schedule next week to fit with their quaint "time zone."

 

[athee]

Does Australia have to turn clocks the opposite direction than us?

• If they did daylight savings

Oh, Australia does Daylight Savings.

But not in every state.

And not at the same time in every state that does it.

Victoria and most but not all of New South Wales are the only two states or territories that are in the same timezone as each other all year round.

The Queensland and New South Wales border runs through the city of the Gold Coast, and as a result for half of every year you need to adjust your watch when crossing certain suburban streets, where the homes and businesses on one side are an hour ahead of those on the other side of the road.

Also, as New Years Day is in midsummer here, there's a short period every twelve months when opposing sides of a number of suburban streets are in different calendar years.

and to make it more head scratching, isn't one zone 30 minutes off and another 45 off? I seem to recall Adelaide (sister lives there) was 30 off from Sydney

 

[bilby]

Does Australia have to turn clocks the opposite direction than us?

• If they did daylight savings

Oh, Australia does Daylight Savings.

But not in every state.

And not at the same time in every state that does it.

Victoria and most but not all of New South Wales are the only two states or territories that are in the same timezone as each other all year round.

The Queensland and New South Wales border runs through the city of the Gold Coast, and as a result for half of every year you need to adjust your watch when crossing certain suburban streets, where the homes and businesses on one side are an hour ahead of those on the other side of the road.

Also, as New Years Day is in midsummer here, there's a short period every twelve months when opposing sides of a number of suburban streets are in different calendar years.

and to make it more head scratching, isn't one zone 30 minutes off and another 45 off? I seem to recall Adelaide (sister lives there) was 30 off from Sydney

Yeah, SA is 30 minutes behind QLD, except during DST, when they're 30 minutes ahead.

The Broken Hill region keeps Adelaide time, rather than Sydney time, despite being a part of NSW.