Fall Back

Sunset in Verona, November 1, 2016 dwm photo

Spring forward, fall back.

 

As this blog went live, most of the United States, 40% of the world shifted from Daylight Savings to Standard time.

 

It adjusts the clock to match sunrise and sunset.

 

Most of the last month the sun was rising after 7 in the Central Time Zone, after 8 in much of Eastern Time.  It makes it tough for people to get up, and more importantly means kids are walking to school or waiting for the bus in the dark.

 

Just rolling back one hour pushes sunrise back to 6:38 from 7:38 a day earlier.  It will get as late as 7:25 in Madison before the winter solstice starts pushing up the sun earlier each day.

 

In the summer, it's nice having an extra hour of daylight instead of an hour before 6 AM.  

Less daylight in the evening isn't a big a deal to me - in fact it's an advantage in fall and winter since you don't have to get up as early or stay up late to record sunrise and sunset.

You may be sleepy but hopefully the extra hour did you some good.

I've shared this story before and I don't know how most businesses handle springing ahead and falling back when it comes to employees working overnight.  

 

When I was a board operator for WHO radio in 1984 I asked if I'd be paid for the extra hour when the clock repeated 2 o'clock in the morning.  I was I'd get it back in the fall when the clock skipped 2 AM entirely.  I lost on that deal because I wasn't working there the following spring.