November 5th – Fall Back
They thought Ben Franklin was joking when he proposed shifting the clock to allow an extra hour of sunlight for bright summer mornings. In World War I, the Germans moved the clock back to save fuel, an effort that was sporadically followed by other European nations and even the United States. “From 1945 to 1966 there was no [U.S.] federal law on daylight saving time, so localities could choose when it began and ended or drop it entirely. As of 1954, only California and Nevada had statewide DST west of the Mississippi, and only a few cities between Nevada and St. Louis. In the 1964 Official Railway Guide, 21 of the 48 states had no DST anywhere…
“By 1962, the transportation industry found the lack of consistency confusing enough to push for federal regulation. The result was the Uniform Time Act of 1966 (P.L. 89-387). Beginning in 1967, the act mandated standard time within the established time zones and provided for advanced time: clocks would be advanced one hour beginning at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday in April and turned back one hour at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday in October. States were allowed to exempt themselves from DST as long as the entire state did so. If a state chose to observe DST, the time changes were required to begin and end on the established dates…
“[With a fuel saving moment during and following the 1973 oil embargo, the Department of Transportation], evaluating the plan of extending DST into March, reported in 1975 that ‘modest overall benefits might be realized by a shift from the historic six-month DST (May through October) in areas of energy conservation, overall traffic safety and reduced violent crime.’ However, DOT also reported that these benefits were minimal and difficult to distinguish from seasonal variations and fluctuations in energy prices…
“In 1986 Congress enacted P.L. 99-359, amending the Uniform Time Act by changing the beginning of DST to the first Sunday in April and having the end remain the last Sunday in October. These start and end dates were in effect from 1987 to 2006.
By the Energy Policy Act of 2005, daylight saving time (DST) was extended in the United States beginning in 2007. As from that year, DST begins on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November. In years when April 1 falls on Monday through Wednesday, these changes result in a DST period that is five weeks longer; in all other years the DST period is instead four weeks longer. In 2008 daylight saving time ended at 2:00 a.m. DST (0200) (1:00 a.m. ST) on Sunday, November 2, and in 2009 it began at 2:00 a.m. (3:00 a.m. DST) on Sunday, March 8. Wyoming Senator Michael Enzi and Michigan Representative Fred Upton advocated the extension from October into November especially to allow children to go trick-or-treating in more daylight.” Wikipedia
Personally, I hate that November “fall-back.” Folks in Massachusetts, noting that the sun was setting as early as 4:11 PM, are threatening to keep DST all year long. Any northern state should follow suite if they have any sense, but even in this sunny southern climate, California, there really is no good reason to continue this stupid practice. Who wants to have that sun set in mid-afternoon?! Not to mention that harsh reality that winter itself – if you use physical manifestations of winter (like cold, freezes, snow, etc.) – is getting shorter as global temperatures get warmer. And yes, folks, Donald Trump’s defiance of physics notwithstanding, global climate change is horribly real.
“Across the United States, the year’s first freeze has been arriving deeper and deeper into the calendar, according to more than a century of measurements from weather stations nationwide… Scientists say that it is yet another sign of the changing climate, and that it has good and bad consequences for the nation. There could be more fruits and vegetables — and also more allergies and pests.
“The trend of ever later first freezes appears to have started around 1980, according to an analysis by the Associated Press of data from 700 weather stations across the U.S. going back to 1895 compiled by Ken Kunkel, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
“To look for nationwide trends, Kunkel compared the first freeze from each of the 700 stations to the station’s average for the 20th century. Some parts of the country experience earlier or later freezes every year, but on average freezes are coming later.
“The average first freeze over the last 10 years, from 2007 to 2016, was a week later than the average from 1971 to 1980, which is before Kunkel said the trend became noticeable… This year, about 40% of the Lower 48 states had had a freeze as of Oct. 23, compared with 65% in a normal year, according to Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the private service Weather Underground… Last year was “way off the charts” nationwide, Kunkel said. The average first freeze was two weeks later than the 20th century average, and the last frost of spring was nine days earlier than normal.
“Overall, the United States’ “freeze season” of 2016 was more than a month shorter than the freeze season of 1916… The aberration from normal was most extreme in the Pacific Northwest. Oregon’s freeze season was 61 days — two months — shorter than normal…
“In New England, many trees aren’t changing colors as vibrantly as they normally do or used to because some take cues for when to turn from the temperature, said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack… Clusters of late-emerging monarch butterflies are being found farther north than normal for this time of year, and are unlikely to survive their migration to Mexico.
“Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said natural variability, especially an El Niño, made last year exceptional for an early freeze, but ‘it represents the kind of conditions that will be more routine in a decade or two’ because of man-made climate change… ‘The long-term consequences are really negative,’ said Primack, because shorter winters and hotter temperatures are also expected to lead to rising seas that cause worse flooding during heavy storms.” Los Angeles Times, October 30th. We get to look out the window in the afternoon… and see pitch black darkness. How cheery.
Oh, and for all those “nothing we can do climate change deniers,” try this little tidbit from the October 30th BBC.com: “Concentrations of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere surged to a record high in 2016, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)… Last year's increase was 50% higher than the average of the past 10 years.
“Researchers say a combination of human activities and the El Niño weather phenomenon drove CO2 to a level not seen in 800,000 years… Scientists say this risks making global temperature targets largely unattainable.
“This year's greenhouse gas bulletin produced by the WMO, is based on measurements taken in 51 countries. Research stations dotted around the globe measure concentrations of warming gases including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.” Good to know we have solid and well-informed leadership at the helm. We could just blame it all on El Niño… we’re good at blame… not so good as fixing the problems. Night, night.
I’m Peter Dekom, and Donald Trump finally gets to turn back the hands of time to Make America Dark Again.
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