Spring ahead this Sunday

Who changes time and who doesn’t?

By FRITZ MAYER

RIVER VALLY — Spring is nearly upon us, and that means it’s time to set your clocks ahead one hour this weekend. The actual change comes on Sunday, March 8, when the clock moves from 1:59 to 3:00 a.m.

Almost every state in the union participates in Daylight Savings Time (DST); the exceptions are Arizona and Hawaii. Hawaii is located much closer to the equator than the rest of the states, therefore the shift to DST doesn’t offer much advantage in the summer because the length of the days are pretty much the same all year. Many countries on or near the equator do not shift to DST in spring.

It’s not exactly clear why Arizona continues to reject DST, although one blogger wrote, “We just don’t need an extra hour of sunlight.” The Navajo Nation, however, with a reservation in Arizona that stretches into three other states, does observe DST.

It used to be that most counties in Indiana observed DST and a few did not. But in 2005, the state legislature voted that all counties should join in, and so they did.

The practice of shifting clocks to get an extra hour of light in the summer months is international and dates back to Germany in 1916. The U.S. picked up the practice two years later. Today, about 70 countries use DST. According to the Internet site www.webexhibits.org, “Japan, India, and China are the only major industrialized countries that do not observe some form of daylight saving.”

For those of us that do practice DST, there is no consensus about when it should begin. In the U.S. it now starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. But up until 2007, it began on the first Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October.

In England and the other countries of the European Union, the time change occurs at 1:00 a.m., begins on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in October.

And in Australia, which is located well south of the equator and where summer begins in December, DST begins the first Sunday in October and ends on the first Sunday in April.

But back to this country for a moment, fire companies across the country urge people to use the day to not only change their clocks but also replace the batteries in their smoke alarms. Estimates show that 90 percent of homes in the U.S. have smoke alarms, but up to a third of them have dead or missing batteries.

So spring ahead, and change your batteries.