Officially, the shift from daylight saving time to standard time takes place here at 2 a.m. on Sunday. Unofficially, the change will occur a lot earlier in most of the nation’s homes and businesses. Just about everyone – if they remember it is time to do so and if they recall the rubric to “fall back” an hour – will reset their household and car clocks, watches, stoves, microwaves, coffeemakers and other gadgets that don’t adjust automatically on Saturday night before going to bed. If they don’t, problems often ensue.
There are numerous tales – some apocryphal, but others not – of parishioners arriving at church an hour early on the morning of the time change. Others reportedly have shown up prematurely for regularly scheduled Sunday morning breakfasts, golf games and other events. Remembering to turn back the clock, then, can be important, especially if an early arrival means you’ll have to wait in the suddenly chill air of an autumn morning for doors to open or for friends to arrive at a meeting place.
Not everyone has to worry about the time change. Residents of Hawaii, most of Arizona and some U.S. territories don’t observe daylight saving time. Consequently, their clocks and other devices don’t have to be changed.
The ritual of changing clocks gradually has become familiar over the years, though the original purposes of daylight saving time – to save energy and to shift daylight to the evening hours when working families can enjoy it – are rarely mentioned. Indeed, there is ongoing argument about the amount of savings accrued by the time change in a society where air-conditioning and artificial light are the norm.
That debate should not obscure the value of another practice that recently has become associated with the time change. For years now, safety officials have urged the public to change the batteries in smoke alarms at the same time they adjust their clocks. That’s sound advice.
Smoke alarms do save lives. That’s an important fact to remember in a country where home fires, unfortunately, remain commonplace. More than 1.3 million fires were reported last year. The fires took more than 2,600 lives and injured nearly 15,000 individuals. They caused nearly $11 billion in property damage. Remembering to change smoke alarm batteries at the same time clocks are reset this evening or early tomorrow morning is one way to reduce that toll.
It will take a couple of days to adjust to a time change that means it is a bit lighter in the morning when most people arise and somewhat darker in the evening when they get home from work. Just don’t get too comfortable with the new timetable.
Daylight saving time – and the resetting of clocks that will require – returns at 2 a.m. local time on the second Sunday of March.