Daylight saving time around the world

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Daylight saving time around the world, showing usage and a short history of daylight saving time by location in alphabetic order.

Contents 1 Africa 1.1 Egypt 1.2 Namibia 1.3 Tunisia 2 Asia 2.1 People's Republic of China 2.2 India 2.3 Iran 2.4 Israel 2.5 Japan 2.6 Jordan 2.7 Kazakhstan 2.8 Kyrgyzstan 2.9 Pakistan 2.10 Philippines 2.11 South Korea 2.12 Syria 2.13 Taiwan 2.14 Asia 3 Oceania 3.1 Australia 3.2 New Zealand 4 Europe 4.1 Russia 4.2 Iceland 5 North and Central America 5.1 Canada 5.1.1 Saskatchewan 5.1.2 Quebec 5.1.3 British Columbia 5.1.4 Nunavut 5.1.5 Ontario 5.2 Cuba 5.3 Greenland 5.4 Guatemala 5.5 Honduras 5.6 Mexico 5.7 Nicaragua 5.8 United States 5.8.1 In 2006 5.8.2 Daylight saving for Halloween 5.8.3 Alaska 5.8.4 Arizona 5.8.5 Colorado 5.8.6 Hawaii 5.8.7 Indiana 5.8.8 Nevada 5.8.9 United States of America Territories 5.9 North America and the Caribbean 6 South America 6.1 Brazil 6.2 Colombia 6.3 Ecuador 6.4 Paraguay 6.5 Uruguay 6.6 South America 7 Footnotes 8 External links

[edit] Africa

No country in Africa observes daylight saving time except those listed below:

• Canary Islands From last Sunday in March to Last Sunday in October and UTC.^[1]
• Egypt From last Friday in April to Last Thursday in September and UTC+3.
• Namibia From first Sunday in September to First Sunday in April and UTC+2.
• Tunisia From last Sunday in March to Last Sunday in October and UTC+2.

[edit] Egypt

Egypt normally observes DST between the last Thursday in April and the last Thursday in September when the clocks are three hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+3). The change is at midnight (local time); i.e. one second after 23:59:59 on that Thursday becomes 23:00:00 Thursday. The date does not change when the first 00:00 midnight occurs; for all practical purposes, midnight does not occur until after the second 23:59:59. However, the 2006 rule is an exception: the clock falls back September 22 at 01:00 so as not to disrupt Ramadan, and possibly similar exceptions will apply in 2007 and 2008.

[edit] Namibia

DST begins on the first Sunday in September, and ends on the first Sunday in April.

[edit] Tunisia

Tunisia adopted Daylight saving time for the first time in 2005 starting 1 May 2005 and following EU time schedules thereafter. This comes as a move by the government to try and promote saving of energy in the wake of the ever-rising cost of fuel in the world market.

[edit] Asia

[edit] People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China experimented with DST from 1986, but abandoned DST from 1992 onwards. The PRC now uses one time zone (UTC+8) for the whole country. Hong Kong, once they had use DST from 1948, but it abandoned DST from 1978 onwards.

[edit] India

India used DST briefly during war times, but no longer operates the system.

[edit] Iran

Before 1979, DST was observed in Iran. Thereafter it was abandoned until 1989, when it started on the first day of Farvardin (21-22 March) in the Iranian calendar and ended on the first day of Mehr (23-24 September). In 2006, Iran stopped observing DST.^[2]

[edit] Israel

Israel observes DST starting on the last Friday before April 2 and ending at 2 AM on the Sunday between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Until 2005, the schedule was variable: the only requirement was that there be at least 150 days per year of DST, and was set out each year by the Ministry of the Interior.^[3]

In territories controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, DST ends later, which can lead to some confusion. On September 5, 1999, militants were transporting a bomb that they mistakenly thought was set to go off at 5:30 PM Israel Standard Time; it was actually set for 5:30 PM Palestinian Daylight Time, which was an hour ahead. As a result, the bomb went off while the bomb was still being transported, killing the terrorists (and earning them a Darwin Award).^[4]

[edit] Japan

From 1948 to 1951, Japan observed DST between May and September every year under an initiative of the U.S.-led occupation army. The unpopularity of DST, for which people complained about sleep disruption and longer daytime labor (some workers had to work from early morning till dusk), caused Japan to abandon DST around the same time that its independence was restored. Since then, DST has never been officially implemented nationwide in Japan.

Starting in the late 1990s, a movement to re-install DST in Japan gained some popularity, aiming at saving energy and increasing recreational time. The Hokkaidō region is particularly in favor of this movement because daylight starts as early as 3:30 am (in standard time) there in summer due to its high latitude and its location near the eastern edge of the time zone. In the early 2000s, a few local governments and commerce departments promoted unmandated hour-earlier work schedule experiments during summer time without officially resetting clocks.

[edit] Jordan

Jordan UTC+2 observes daylight saving time from the end of March to the end of October.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan made a decision to stop observing DST in 2005.^[5]

[edit] Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan voted to stop observing DST in 2005 by remaining on UTC+6 as Standard Time (which used to be Kyrgyzstan Summer Time) to still save energy.

[edit] Pakistan

Pakistan experimented with DST in 2002, going from +5:00 to +6:00 on the first Sunday in April at 00:01 to the first Sunday in October at 00:01. It has not used it since then.

[edit] Philippines

The Philippines experimented with DST for shorter periods during the presidencies of Corazon Aquino (1986 to 1992) and Fidel Ramos (1992 to 1998). DST was primarily intended to help deal with the country's energy crisis by minimizing the number of hours where electric lighting was to be used. On April 2006, the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry again proposed that DST be implemented to help deal with rising oil prices.^[6][7]

[edit] South Korea

South Korea observed DST from 1948 to 1951, from 1955 to 1960, and from 1987 to 1988. South Korea does not currently observe DST.

[edit] Syria

Syria observes DST at UTC+3, in 2006 from 30 March until 21 September (a change from 30 September).

[edit] Taiwan

Taiwan implemented DST from 1945 to 1961, revoked DST from 1962 to 1973, reinstated DST from 1974 to 1975, and abandoned DST from 1976 onwards.

[edit] Asia

These countries do not use Daylight saving time:

• Afghanistan
• Bahrain
• China, Macau, Taiwan
• Iran
• Japan
• Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
• Mongolia
• North Korea
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• South Korea
• Nepal
• Bhutan
• Pakistan
• India
• Bangladesh
• Myanmar
• Thailand
• Laos
• Vietnam
• Philippines
• Cambodia
• Malaysia (on permanent DST; UTC+8 at UTC+7 longitude)
• Brunei
• Singapore (on permanent DST; UTC+8 at UTC+7 longitude)
• Indonesia
• Timor Leste
• Papua New Guinea

[edit] Oceania

New Zealand and parts of Australia are the only areas in Oceania that currently observe DST.

[edit] Australia

Main article: Time in Australia

In Australia, the decision to implement daylight saving time is left up to each state or territory. Some states and territories implement it and some do not.

New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia apply DST on a yearly basis. Tasmania commences daylight saving on the first Sunday in October, while other states begin on the last Sunday in October.

In 2006, the Parliament of Western Australia approved a three-year daylight saving trial to be followed by a referendum to decide whether DST should be put in place permanently. However, public opposition mounted during the first year of the trial,^[8] and the WA Nationals have announced a public campaign to bring the referendum forward to 2007.^[9] Three previous referenda, in 1975, 1984 and 1992, rejected DST.^[10]

The Northern Territory and Queensland do not officially have DST. Queensland experimented with DST for a year or two in the early 1970s, and again in the early 1990s, but it was abandoned after a majority of residents voted against it in a 1992 referendum.

[edit] New Zealand

Main article: Time in New Zealand

DST begins at 2 a.m. NZST on the first Sunday in October each year, and ends at 3 a.m. NZDT (or 2 a.m. NZST as defined in the Time Act 1974) on the third Sunday in March.

New Zealand time, including DST, is used by several Antarctic bases that are supplied from New Zealand. This results in the oddity that the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station sets its clocks an hour further ahead during the southern summer, when the sun is constantly above the horizon, than in the southern winter, when the sun is constantly below the horizon. The extreme geographic position of the base means that there is no possible adjustment of the daily activity cycle that can have any effect on the amount of sunlight received during those activities.

The New Zealand government will extend daylight saving time by regulation from 2008. The extension will run until, most likely, the first or second Sunday in April. http://www.stuff.co.nz/3990642a11.html

[edit] Europe

All countries in Europe except Iceland observe DST and change on the same date and time, starting on the last Sunday in March and ending on the last Sunday in October. Before 1996, DST ended on the last Sunday in September. In the West European (UTC), Central European (CET, UTC+1), and East European (UTC+2) time zones the change is simultaneous: on both dates the clocks are changed everywhere at 01:00 UTC, i.e. from local times of 01:00/02:00/03:00 to 02:00/03:00/04:00 in March, and vice versa in October.^[11] See also: European Summer Time and British Summer Time which includes description of Double Summer Time.

[edit] Russia

In Russia daylight saving time was originally introduced on July 1, 1917 by a decree of the Russian Provisional Government, when clocks were moved one hour forwards. But it was abandoned by a Decree of the Soviet government five months later, clocks being moved one hour back again on December 27.

Daylight saving time would be reintroduced already in the USSR (Moscow Summer Time) on April 1, 1981 by a decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In Russia it was not abandoned after the breakup of the USSR. The changeover dates in Russia are the same as for other European countries, but clocks are moved forward or back at 02:00 local time in all zones. Thus in Moscow (local time = UTC+3 in winter, UTC+4 in summer), DST commences at 23:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in March, and ends at 23:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in October (note that "day before last Sunday" is not the same as "last Saturday" in a month where the last day is a Saturday).

[edit] Iceland

With Iceland observing UTC all year round despite being at a longitude which would indicate UTC-1, the country may be thought of as being on continuous DST.

[edit] North and Central America

North America generally follows the same procedure, with each time zone switching at 2:00 a.m. LST (local standard time) to 3:00 LDT (local daylight time) on the second Sunday in March, and again from 2:00 a.m. LDT to 1:00 LST on the first Sunday in November since 2007. Previously, Daylight Saving Time was four weeks shorter (see below).

The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador is an exception in that the time changes take place at 00:01 local standard time and 00:01 local daylight time respectively.^[12] Also, in 1988, they experimented with Double Daylight Time, when the clocks went ahead by two hours, instead of the usual one hour.

[edit] Canada

Main article: Time in Canada

In Canada, time is under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, not federal. The governments of Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Alberta, the Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Yukon Territory have so far pledged to change their DST rules to match the new U.S. rules. Newfoundland and Labrador has since also adopted legislation to implement the change.^[12] In 2007, their DST will start on the second Sunday in March, and return to standard time on the first Sunday in November. Nunavut will continue to change time on the first Sunday in April and last Sunday in October unless it changes its legislation. As noted below, Saskatchewan does not recognize DST.

[edit] Saskatchewan

The province of Saskatchewan is the largest part of the country that does not observe DST. Saskatchewan is bisected by the 105° West meridian, the central meridian of the Mountain Standard Time Zone (UTC-7), yet clocks are kept at UTC-6 all year long. (This policy was implemented when the Saskatchewan Time Act was passed in 1966, to solve the problems that arose when time zones varied from town to town.) Saskatchewan is always on Central Standard Time. In the summer months, this matches adjacent areas that are on Mountain Daylight Time to the west and south, and in the winter months, it matches areas that are on Central Standard Time to the east. Officially, the province is considered to be part of the Central time zone.

The charter of the city of Lloydminster, which is bisected by the Saskatchewan–Alberta boundary, gives it a special exception among areas in Saskatchewan to use DST. Lloydminster and its immediately surrounding region in Saskatchewan use the same timekeeping routine used by Alberta: DST with Mountain Standard Time.^[13] Local custom in Denare Beach and Creighton, SK, is to observe DST, thereby keeping the same time as nearby Manitoba communities.

[edit] Quebec

The eastern reaches of Quebec's North Shore, east of 63° West longitude, are in the Atlantic Time Zone, but do not observe DST (see exception, below). The effect is that in summer, their clocks match those of the rest of the province, which observes Eastern Daylight Time. In October, their clocks are rejoined by their Atlantic Standard Time neighbors. Although places east of 63° West are officially on Atlantic Time, local custom is to use Eastern Time as far east as the Natashquan River. Those communities observe DST, including all of Anticosti Island, which is bisected by the 63rd meridian.

[edit] British Columbia

Most of British Columbia observes DST, but there is a large tract in east-central BC in the Mountain Time Zone that does not (most of BC is on Pacific Time). This includes Fort St. John, Charlie Lake, Taylor and Dawson Creek. The Crowsnest corridor between Creston and Yahk in the East Kootenays (southeastern BC) also keeps standard time year-round.

[edit] Nunavut

While the rest of Nunavut observes DST, Southampton Island including Coral Harbour remain on Eastern Standard Time throughout the year.

[edit] Ontario

Most of Ontario uses DST with a few exceptions. Secluded in the heart of northwestern Ontario, Pickle Lake and New Osnaburgh have no use for DST. To the south, Atikokan also ignores it, using Eastern Standard Time year-round, effectively adopting Central Daylight Time in summer. Southern Ontario including Toronto, however, does observe DST. The power utilities of Ontario also do not use DST.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Cuba

Cuba remained on DST from April of 2004 until October 29, 2006. Cuba restarted DST again on 11 March 2007.

[edit] Greenland

Greenland (excluding two minor areas at Danmarkshavn and Pituffik) observes DST and uses the European convention (DST begins 01:00 UTC last Sunday in March and ends 01:00 UTC last Sunday in October). Most of the country is in the UTC-3 zone in the winter (UTC-2 in the summer).

[edit] Guatemala

Guatemala has used DST from time to time due to energetic problems. The last time it used DST was on April 30, 2006, ending on October 1, 2006. The implementation of DST has saved more than eight million dollars.^{[citation needed]} However DST will not be observed in 2007.

[edit] Honduras

Honduras adopted DST once from May 1994 until September 1994 but abandoned it that same year. On May 7, 2006 it again used DST, however it ended on August 7, 2006 making this the shortest use of DST in the northern hemisphere as it was only applied for 3 months. The government announced that the measure will be observed during the next three years 2007, 2008, 2009

[edit] Mexico

Mexico adopted DST nationwide in 1996, even in its tropical regions, because of its increasing economic ties to the United States. The Mexican state of Sonora has not observed DST since 1998 because its neighbor Arizona does not observe DST, and the important economic ties between these two states.[1] Although the United States has changed the schedule for DST beginning in 2007, Mexico will not be going along with it. DST has often been a contentious issue in Mexico and is not likely to be expanded.[2]

[edit] Nicaragua

Nicaragua observed DST since January 1, 1992 until February 20, 1994 but was stopped. On April 10, 2005 until October 2, 2005 was implemented DST, this year the period has been similar began on April 30, 2006 and will be ending on October 1, 2006, this measure is for energy conservation.

[edit] United States

Main article: Time in the United States

Daylight Saving Time currently starts on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November, with all time changes taking place at 2:00 a.m. local time. From 1986 through 2006, DST began on the first Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday of October. Under Section 110 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the U.S. Department of Energy is required to study the impact of 2007's DST extension no later than nine months after the change took effect. Congress has retained the right to revert to the DST schedule set in 1986. One potential issue is that some northern regions on the western edge of time zones are, for the first time since the 1974-75 "almost year round" DST experiment, experiencing sunrise times that occur after 8am.

Many computers are affected by this change; see Y2K7.

[edit] In 2006

The schedule for 2006 in the United States was that DST began on the first Sunday in April (April 2, 2006), and changed back to standard time on the last Sunday in October (October 29, 2006). The time is adjusted at 2 AM local time.

Time Zone	Standard Time	Daylight Saving
USA Eastern	-5 hours (01:57)	-4 hours
USA Central	-6 hours (00:57)	-5 hours
USA Mountain	-7 hours (23:57)	-6 hours
USA Arizona	-7 hours (23:57)
USA Pacific	-8 hours (22:57)	-7 hours
USA Alaska	-9 hours (21:57)	-8 hours
USA Aleutian	-10 hours (20:57)
USA Hawaii	-10 hours (20:57)
Current local times in 24-hour format are in parentheses.

[edit] Daylight saving for Halloween

One bill that has been pushed for the past several years, especially by Wyoming Senator Michael Enzi, is the Halloween Safety Act to extend DST by one week to end on the first Sunday of November instead of the last Sunday in October. The idea was to allow children to go trick-or-treating in more daylight. This extension was achieved with the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

[edit] Alaska

Alaska currently observes DST, but there is a statewide move to abolish it. As of July 24, 2006, Alaska's lieutenant governor Loren Leman approved a petition to collect signatures to put the initiative measure on the ballot by 2008. Due to its high latitude, Alaska has nearly round-the-clock daylight during summer and DST is seen by some Alaskans as unnecessary and a nuisance. Another issue is that the Alaskan mainland's single time zone is too wide and there is a large disparity between civil time and solar time with solar noon occurring as late as 3:00 P.M. by the clock in a place like Nome, Alaska. Others argue that ending daylight saving time will place Alaska as much as five hours from Eastern Standard Time, making coordination of travel and phone conversations more difficult.

[edit] Arizona

Arizona did observe DST in 1967 under the Uniform Time Act when the state legislature did not enact an exemption statute that year. In March 1968, the DST exemption statute was enacted and the state of Arizona has not observed DST since 1967 (however, the large Navajo Indian Reservation, which extends from Arizona into two adjacent states, does). This is in large part due to energy conservation since the temperature in and around Phoenix and Tucson is hotter than any other large U.S. metropolitan area during the summer, resulting in more power usage from air conditioning units and evaporative coolers in homes and businesses. An extra hour of sunlight while people are active would cause people to run their cooling systems longer, thereby using more energy. This would apply anywhere that air conditioners are commonly used, which means the vast majority of the United States uses more energy during DST.

[edit] Colorado

At the end of the 20th century, Colorado Springs Gazette columnist Ralph Routon wrote a series of columns supporting the idea of placing all of Colorado on year-round DST in order to save state residents the "aggravation of resetting their clocks every six months."^[14] The idea gathered noticeable popular support within Colorado Springs, and attention of the state's larger newspapers,^[15] but when then state Senator MaryAnne Tebedo attempted to present the idea to the state legislature, her research uncovered Federal laws forbidding the state-initiated extension of daylight saving time. Still determined to relieve Coloradans of the need to change their clocks, Tebedo introduced the only bill legally permitted to her: a proposal to exempt the state of Colorado from DST. The bill failed to escape committee during the 2000 legislative session.^[16]

[edit] Hawaii

Because of Hawaii's tropical latitude, there is not a large variation in daylight length between winter and summer. Due to the location of Hawaiian archipelago, advancing the clock in Hawaii would have made sunrise times close to 7:00 A.M. even in June.[3] (Most of inhabited islands are located close to the west end of the Hawaii-Aleutian time zone, but Oahu, Kauai and Niihau are located more than 7 1/2 degrees west of the Hawaii-Aleutian time zone's meridian and should be ideally located in the next time zone to the west. Hawaii did experiment with DST for three weeks between April 30, 1933 and May 21, 1933; there is no record as to why it was implemented or ultimately discontinued.^[17] Hawaii has never observed daylight saving time under the Uniform Time Act, having opted out of the Act's provisions in 1967.^[18]

[edit] Indiana

See also: Time in Indiana

From 1970 until 2006, most of Indiana in the Eastern Time Zone did not observe Daylight Saving Time, but the entire state started to do so in April 2006 after eight counties in western Indiana were shifted from the Eastern Time Zone to the Central Time Zone.^[19] One of the goals for observing DST was to get more Indiana counties observing the same timezone; formerly, 77 counties observed EST, 5 observed EST/EDT, and 10 observed CST/CDT. However, now Indiana has 18 counties observing Central Daylight Time while the remaining 74 counties observe Eastern Daylight Time.

[edit] Nevada

In 2005, Nevada Assembly Bill 18 would have exempted Nevada from Daylight Saving Time. The bill's author, Assemblyman Bob McCleary, D-North Las Vegas, argued that because of southern Nevada's desert climate, it would reduce power usage during the peak summer months by reducing the time that people would operate their home air conditioners. The result of not observing DST, however, would place the state in an odd time configuration relative to neighboring states. Because it is on the eastern edge of the Pacific Time Zone, Nevada (PST) would be two hours behind Utah (MDT), its eastern neighbor, and one hour behind California (PDT), its western neighbor. In the summer, it would therefore be the same time in Nevada (PST) as it would be in the majority of Alaska (AKDT). The bill died without a vote.^[20]

[edit] United States of America Territories

The following United States of America territories do not follow DST: American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands.

[edit] North America and the Caribbean

These areas do not use Daylight saving time:

• Canada (Saskatchewan, northeastern British Columbia and Southampton Island in Nunavut)
• United States of America (Arizona, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico)
• Mexico (Sonora)
• The islands of the Caribbean

[edit] South America

[edit] Brazil

Brazil adopted DST (called o horário de verão – "summer time" – in Portuguese) for the first time in 1931, and has used it continuously since 1985 in the southern states (south, southeast regions and the states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul), and in Bahia until 2004. Starting and ending dates are variable: normally, DST starts at midnight on an October (rarely November) Sunday and ends at midnight on a February or March Sunday. In 2006, DST started on November 5, 2006 and it will end on February 25, 2007 in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Distrito Federal.

[edit] Colombia

From February 1992 until March 1993, Colombia suffered rolling blackouts of up to 10 hours a day due to a particularly strong El Niño season, which dried the reservoirs in hydroelectric plants in a country deriving 70% of its energy output from hydroelectric sources; consequently, the government decided to use DST to help save electricity. The experience did not have good results due to the low latitude; therefore it is no longer observed, although it was intended to be a temporary measure.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Ecuador

President Sixto Durán Ballén imposed daylight saving time in 1992 in an energy-saving effort. It was poorly received by the populace and did not last long.

[edit] Paraguay

Paraguay observes DST. The current regulation that establishes this is decree 1867 of March 5, 2004. DST starts on the Second Sunday of March and ends on the third Sunday of October.

On 2007, DST started on October 15, 2006 and ended on March 11, 2007.

[edit] Uruguay

Since 2004, Uruguay has observed DST. Starting in 2006, DST will start on the first Sunday in October and end on the second Sunday in March of every year.

[edit] South America

These areas do not use Daylight saving time:

• Colombia
• Venezuela
• Guyana
• Perú
• The following states of Brazil: Acre, Alagoas, Amapá, Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Pará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Rondônia, Roraima, Sergipe, and Tocantins.
• Argentina (Argentina could be said to have DST all year around, in that it uses UTC-3 but is located around the UTC-4 longitude)

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Sources for time zone and daylight saving time data