Daylight Savings Time starts March 11th this year!

[Rocky Rascovich]

Hopefully this isn't too irrelevant to post this on this forum... but I found this intriguing... I remember a few years back that President Bush was considering extending our daylight savings time... I guess he did unbeknownst to me, because effective March 11th 2am.. we move our clocks forward one hour.. before I believe we did'nt move forward ontil the last Sat. in April if I'm not mistaken.

In addition, we have an extra week into November before we fall back to standard time.. not sure what this will exactly accomplish, except it will give us an extra hour of daylight for us hardcore early season chasers.

Rocky&family

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Maybe March will be warmer with that extra hour of heating!


Okay... I'm kidding. But I really do like the change. I'm certainly affected by SAD, and the extended daylight hours will surely help that. Nothing brightens my mood like seeing the sun after 7 PM. My only question is, why even change it. Does anyone really enjoy seeing the sun set at 4:30? I'm sure there was/is a reason it's done, but I'd love to see it done away with altogether.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

The start of Daylight Saving Time was moved forward 3 weeks this year (and the end of DST has been moved back 1 week in the fall), based on evidence that such a move will reduce energy consumption (less indoor and outdoor lighting necessary, etc). I don't have the exact particulars about this, but I'm sure Google would turn up something good... Actually, I'm sure someone on this board knows more about the specifics.

Regardless, I certainly helps that this results in me getting out of class at 17UTC instead of 18UTC now. It's not a huge deal since I don't have any afternoon classes, but it gives me another hour to position myself or pour over wx data before heading out.

 

[rdale]

Only one "s" in saving ;>

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Well, at least, time difference with USA will be 1 hour shorter to me for two weeks(like we had when Estonia did not use DST in 2000 and 2001). However, time difference would be a hour longer when you go back to standard time. So far we have had bigger difference after last Sunday of March, when Estonia has gone to Daylight time, but you've been on standard time.

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Only one "s" in saving ;>

Not here in Oklahoma it's not. tomato – tomauto (doesn’t look right but it sounds right. Who cares anyway?)

This is good news indeed. Much like you Rocky I had heard about it when it was proposed but never realized it was actually pushed through. I have always hated when we switch to standard time because I love the sun light. I like!

Here is to an early Daylight SavingS time!

Mick

 

[rdale]

At least this way we'll get the "extra hour of sun for more chase time" thread out of the way sooner!

 

[Karen Politte]

I had no idea that DST started on March 11th this year.

It's very cool to have it starting on my birthday!

KL

 

[Verne Carlson]

Much like the Y2K date changes, the DST date changes this year and last fall cost our company hundreds of thousands of $$ in software changes and testing.

I applaud the change but would like to see it (DST) go away all together some year. -- More software changes --- ugh!


Edit: I write medical software for the ER so it has to work during those wacky hours of spring forward and fallback at 2 am.

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Much like the Y2K date changes, the DST date changes this year and last fall cost our company hundreds of thousands of $$ in software changes and testing.

I applaud the change but would like to see it (DST) go away all together some year. -- More software changes --- ugh!

Yiks! I bet that was expensive. It would be interesting to see how that effected other coampanies as well. Are you in the software busness Verne?

At least this way we'll get the "extra hour of sun for more chase time" thread out of the way sooner!

Well for what it's worth, the "extra hour of sun for more chase time" really helps us "real" chasers out on many chases.


Mick

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I'm referring to the annual thread that pops up where someone gets excited about DST because the additional hour of sunshine heats the atmosphere up more. Most realize that's not the case, but some "real" chasers (what is an "unreal" chaser?) sometimes get confused...

Well we might not get that extra hour of heating, but it sure is nice to be able to watch the storms for a longer time during the daylight. So whatever is the case, there's always the extra hour you get to view the thing.

 

[David Drummond]

Here is a good site about Daylight Saving Time. It's very common for many people to incorrectly state "savings" time. The website even talks about it:

http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html

The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight SavingS Time.
Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Similar examples would be a mind expanding book or a man eating tiger. Saving is used in the same way as saving a ball game, rather than as a savings account.
Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings (with an 's') flows more mellifluously off the tongue. Daylight Savings Time is also in common usage, and can be found in dictionaries.
Adding to the confusion is that the phrase Daylight Saving Time is inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting Time would be better, but it is not as politically desirable.

 

[Mickey Ptak]

I'm referring to the annual thread that pops up where someone gets excited about DST because the additional hour of sunshine heats the atmosphere up more. Most realize that's not the case, but some "real" chasers (what is an "unreal" chaser?) sometimes get confused...

I know what you are referring to Rob. I also know these are common topics that come up every year, but hey there are a bunch of new people here every year as well (Rocky by far not being one of them).

(In my terms) "unreal" chaser? Arm-chair chaser (though nothing wrong with being an armchair chaser).

(In my terms) “real” chaser? Someone who actively makes a forecast, picks a target, gets out and chases accordingly.

Any chaser who has chased for any period of time understands that even one hour of day light could make or break a good shot of a photogenic supercell. (That’s unless you your last name is Hollingshead and then it really doesn’t matter what time of day you shoot because it’s going to come out great anyway lol.)

 

[Jeff Snyder]

The start of DST, unfortunately, does not give us any more daylight to view a supercell. Let's say you don't need to work some day, so you can leave at sunrise if you want. The supercells we love to chase are largely driven by, amongst other things, diurnal heating (aiding destabilization, weakening CINH, etc). In other words, storm potential is affected by insolation (or the sun's clock, not ours). As such, a storm that won't initiated until 20UTC won't be affected by the start of DST... This just means that instead of being 2pm, it'll be 3pm when the storm initiates. If the sun sets at 00UTC, there are still just 4 hours of daylight, regardless of whether it's 2pm-6pm CST or 3pm-7pm CDT.

So again, DST != more daylight hours to watch a storm (all else being equal). This may mean that you have more time to watch a storm if you have to chase around work or school, since DST means getting out of those commitments 1 hour earlier (e.g. 21UTC instead of 22UTC).

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

The start of DST, unfortunately, does not give us any more daylight to view a supercell. Let's say you don't need to work some day, so you can leave at sunrise if you want. The supercells we love to chase are largely driven by, amongst other things, diurnal heating (aiding destabilization, weakening CINH, etc). In other words, storm potential is affected by insolation (or the sun's clock, not ours). As such, a storm that won't initiated until 20UTC won't be affected by the start of DST... This just means that instead of being 2pm, it'll be 3pm when the storm initiates. If the sun sets at 00UTC, there are still just 4 hours of daylight, regardless of whether it's 2pm-6pm CST or 3pm-7pm CDT.

So again, DST != more daylight hours to watch a storm (all else being equal). This may mean that you have more time to watch a storm if you have to chase around work or school, since DST means getting out of those commitments 1 hour earlier (e.g. 21UTC instead of 22UTC).

Sigh. I thought for sure someone else would be the one to say this. The "real" best part about this whole topic is not seeing those that don't get it, it is seeing the first person to fall for the other posts and come out and honestly explain things. Thanks!