Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday morning. The best practice on that is to set your clocks forward one hour before you go to bed on Saturday. We’ll be on Daylight Savings Time until Nov. 3.
This year legislation in Washington state and Alaska could make it more interesting when time comes for the “fall back” process in November.
Washington state senators have proposed a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent in that state, so it would be on just one time all year long. Senate Bill 5139 says that if not authorized by Congress, the state will seek approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to change Washington to year-round mountain standard time.
That would put Alaska two hours off of Seattle time for most of the year. In winter, when it’s noon in Alaska, it would be 2 pm in Seattle. But during Daylight Saving Time, from March until November, Alaska would be one hour off of Seattle and the rest of Washington State.
A bill presented by Rep. George Rauscher would fix the seasonal confusion by putting Alaska permanently on Alaska Standard Time. In that scenario, Alaska would be two hours off of Washington’s proposed Mountain Time all year.
Rauscher’s House Bill 43 would have the State petition the U.S. Department of Transportation to initiate proceedings under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which would include public hearings on changing the time zone boundaries, putting Alaska permanently on Alaska Standard Time.
The bill was referred to House State Affairs Committee on Feb. 22.
I’ve known it to be Dayling Saving(s) Time (no “s” on Saving). But what’s an “s” among friends? What’s an hour among States? Enough of the clock changing! Who cares if we are one or two hours off of Washington State. Maybe they will get their act together too and stop messing with their clocks as well. Everyone will figure it out. States that stopped fiddling with their clocks have managed. Enough with the clocks already!
Got it. Thanks! -sd
I agree. So what if we are two hours behind Washington. At least it will be consistent. I have been waiting for the day that the time is not changed. It will bring so much benefit to the people including improved health for everyone.
We could only hope
It would be a relief to be done with the annual clock rituals. We no longer need to plow and plant by daylight!
Good riddance.
Would love AK to put an end to “daylight savings” time. Goldwater refused to make Arizona comply stating I’ll be damned if Arizonans lose an hour of sleep so Congress can have an hour longer to play golf. LOL
Why would WA want to be on Mountain and not Pacific? And if they go to Mountain why don’t we (AK) go to Pacific time? At least then we’d be in tune with Kalifornia and only be an hour different from Seattle.
If Washington “springs forward” permanently, it puts them on Mountain time for at least some of the year, same time as Idaho, because Idaho is still changing back and forth, although there have been moves to stabilize their time zone as well. There’s a little sprig of Northwest Idaho (Post Falls) that is on Pacific time…so confusing! -sd
It’s not Daylight “Saving” Time; it’s Daylight “Shifting” Time. No daylight is saved; nothing magical happens to the sunlight. Personally, I think the clocks should be left on standard time year-round. Keep the Sun at its highest point in the sky at 12 noon.
Yes!
Totally agree with Fred. So many Alaskans are outdoors during the summer. Would be nice to navigate by looking up at the location of the sun, and say, “Look! that’s south.” Yes, the two-hour difference would be inconvenient, but Alaskans are used to inconvenience.
One plus-stop changing the time.
Two plus- lock it in Standard Time.
ps- sooner than later beacuse all the sensible people are tired of this.
Unfortunately, its the Travel Industry that was against this issue the last time it was discussed in the state legislature. One way, or the other, lets leave the clocks alone!
I looked at the link to the house bill and it looks like it’s also asking to change Alaska’s time zone to permanently stay at pacific standard time. Is this right? Then we’d be only 1 hour behind Seattle if Seattle changed to permanently stay at pacific daylight saving time or Mountain standard time? I would love this, then we’d only be 3 hours behind east coast half the year…maybe?
I like that meme that’s gone around for years showing an Indian chief saying “Only white man thinks he can cut 4 inches off blanket, sew it to other side and think he has a longer blanket.” I despise DST—needs to be stopped permanently!
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