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As I See It

As I See It…Setting the Clocks Again

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Here’s a warning for everybody…we have to set our clocks back an hour next weekend. That’s how we play the Daylight Saving game in America.

It’s been getting dark around 6 p.m. this month, and as of next Sunday, when we return to standard time, sunset will be back before 5 p.m., bringing us early darkness pretty much through the holiday season. When Washington decides to change the dates for daylight saving time, just about every 20 years, they tend to start it earlier in the year, and leave the end date around Halloween. The year-round schedule was tried in the 70’s, during what they called an ‘energy crisis,’ but there were so many problems with darkness in the morning, the year-round idea was scrapped. Year-long daylight savings was voted on again last year, and the House didn’t pass it.

If we’d just leave the clocks an hour ahead all year, the earliest sunset La Crosse would get is around 5:30 in the afternoon, which seems reasonable to me. Under the way we do it now, we don’t get back to a 6 o’clock sunset until early March, when it’s about time to turn the clocks ahead again anyway.

A lot depends on where you live. Near the Canadian border, it stays light well past 9 p.m. in July, while in Hawaii, a 7 p.m. sunset is common. Until Congress decides on another change, maybe we should take comfort in the notion that the early evening darkness only lasts a few weeks, and spring returns before you know it. I’m Brad Williams, on WIZM,

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.

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2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. LG

    October 28, 2024 at 11:17 am

    Maybe Congress should stop messing around with the clocks completely. Try as they may to adjust reality, to play God in a sense, they are not reallybchanging the number of daylight or nighttime hours on the planet. This twice yearly change of time messes with peoples schedules, circadian rhythms (of adults, children, pets), puts us out of step with the rest of the world, and clearly Impacts airlines and other industries. For example, airlines/pilots convert central standard time to Universal coordinated time or Zulu time. That’s because when you’re traveling across time zones, the industry would be completely confused if there wasn’t a standard. Converting to daylight saving time requires a second calculation. This is especially confusing because some communities refuse to play the game. For example, Lake Havasu City in Arizona does not adjust their clocks twice a year as Congress decrees. And you are right Brad, “daylight savings” keeps it light in the northern states much longer than in the southern states. And it’s never a good idea to send your kids off to the bus stop mornings in total darkness (the result of Congress failing to revert back to standard time before the school year starts). It all depends on the latitude in which you live. It’s really very simple. Instead of Letting Congress mess around with the passage of time, they could just leave well enough alone. If we wanted to have more daylight in the evening, left to their own devices, Employers and school districts could simply start the work and school day earlier and end it earlier.

  2. Roy

    October 29, 2024 at 2:48 pm

    Daylight time vs. Standard time is no problem in Newfoundland, Canada. There, clocks are a half hour ahead of Central Yes, a HALF hour. How would you like to deal with that?

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