Daylight savings ends Nov. 1st

October 30, 2015 · 0 Comments

This Sunday, November 1, 2015, at 2 a.m. Daylight Saving Time will end – so remember to turn your clocks back one hour before you go to bed on Saturday night.
With the time change, sunrise and sunset will be one hour earlier on Nov. 1 than the day before, giving us more light in the morning and an earlier sunset.
Also called ‘Fall Back’, or the dreaded ‘winter time’ Daylight Saving Time has been used in Canada since the late 1960s to provide more daylight hours in spring and summer (clocks go ahead one hour the second Sunday in March). The return to standard time restarts on the first Sunday in November.
DST across Canada has been closely or completely synchronized with its observance in the United States to promote consistent economic and social interaction. When the United States extended DST in 1987 to the first Sunday in April, all DST-observing Canadian provinces followed suit to mimic the change.
In Ontario, Pickle Lake, New Osnaburgh, and Atikokan – three communities located within the Central Time Zone in Northwestern Ontario – observe Eastern Standard Time all year long.
According to Wikipedia, “The practice (of using DST)has received both advocacy and criticism. Putting clocks forward (in the spring) benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but can cause problems for evening entertainment and for other activities tied to sunlight, such as farming. Although some early proponents of DST aimed to reduce evening use of incandescent lighting, which was formerly a primary use of electricity, modern heating and cooling usage patterns differ greatly and research about how DST currently affects energy use is limited or contradictory.
DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software can often adjust clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of the dates and timings of DST may be confusing.”
At any rate, DST is over, so welcome to back to driving home from work in the dark – which benefits those travelling west (previously into the setting sun).
Remember to adjust your driving accordingly, as there is usually a higher incident of accidents at this time of year, as drivers adjust to new conditions – darkness – followed, of course, by snow.

By Wendy Gabrek