Double question
When do the clocks go forward in North America to Summer time?
And why is there always a lag behind GMT which is always the Saturday following the 21st of March in the UK?

It means I have to count 7 hours behind instead of 6 for timings of AP&DP postings

For most of the US, Daylight Saving Time (DST)(which is called Summer Time in Europe), begins at 2AM local time on the first Sunday in April (April 4 this year), so you'll have to wait another week before your 7 hour time difference reverts back to 6. About 15 years ago, DST didn't start until the last Sunday in April, at which time it was changed by US federal law to the first Sunday of April. DST ends on the last Sunday in October, which I believe is the same as yourdate. I'm guessing that down the road years from now, we'll be consistent worldwide, but I believe that will be many years away. Incidentally, that 7 hour difference you are referring to is your UK time compared to US Central Standard Time (CST)(mid west US). It is presently a 6 hour difference in eastern US, and a whopping 9 hour difference in places like California. These differences will become 6, 5, and 8, respectively, next week when DST kicks in. I believe this site uses CST as the post time.

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Originally posted by gerry:
For most of the US, Daylight Saving Time (DST)(which is called Summer Time in Europe), begins at 2AM local time on the first Sunday in April (April 4 this year), so you'll have to wait another week before your 7 hour time difference reverts back to 6. About 15 years ago, DST didn't start until the last Sunday in April, at which time it was changed by US federal law to the first Sunday of April. DST ends on the last Sunday in October, which I believe is the same as yourdate. I'm guessing that down the road years from now, we'll be consistent worldwide, but I believe that will be many years away. Incidentally, that 7 hour difference you are referring to is your UK time compared to US Central Standard Time (CST)(mid west US). It is presently a 6 hour difference in eastern US, and a whopping 9 hour difference in places like California. These differences will become 6, 5, and 8, respectively, next week when DST kicks in. I believe this site uses CST as the post time.

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Being consistent worldwide doesn't make much sense, as there is little seasonal variation in day length in the tropics, so daylight savings time would be unproductive there, and in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reversed relative to the northern, making our dates actually counter-productive.

By the way, has anyone noticed yet that this year on four four four we set our clocks forwards?

It will be a long time before that happens again.

Oh, and Pacific Time's differences from GMT are 8 hours and seven hours for Pacific Standard and Pacific Daylight time respectively.

Alan Moore

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Originally posted by AMoore:

Oh, and Pacific Time's differences from GMT are 8 hours and seven hours for Pacific Standard and Pacific Daylight time respectively.

Alan Moore

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That is correct, but the difference right now between PST and UK Summer Time is 9 hours. Next week, the difference between PDST and UK Summer Time will be 8 hours, while the difference between PDST and GMT will be 7 hours. There is a difference!

You are likely correct about not keeping world time consistent for DST, but it certainly makes sense to keep the US and Europe consistent rather than confuse things for a lousy week as Bedstor mentioned.

France and Britain, naturally, show their traditional accord on such matters.

Yup. The British put their clocks forward at two am on Sunday.

Here in France the instruction I got was to put the clocks forward at one am on Sunday.

Quelle surprise !

Well, at least we now agree on the date ( we used to differ for a week or two)

Oh and, of course, the UK was already one hour behind France. It must be some Gallic gall over it all being Greenwich Mean Time at base. Greenwich was , after all, settled on in a conference in Washington DC (hosted you see, by some of 'les Anglo-Saxes'). The French objected to it then and abstained moodily on the vote . Nothing much has changed in relations since 1884

It is somewhat interesting to note that the US put their clocks ahead or back at 2AM local time, which means the whole US is out of synch for a few hours as to who's on standard time and who's on DST; while in Europe, the time change occurs at 1am GMT time, implying that both France and England turn their clocks ahead at exactly the same instant of time, ignoring the effects of Einstein's special theory of relativitity, of course!

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Originally posted by gerry:
It is somewhat interesting to note that the US put their clocks ahead or back at 2AM local time, which means the whole US is out of synch for a few hours as to who's on standard time and who's on DST; while in Europe, the time change occurs at 1am GMT time, implying that both France and England turn their clocks ahead at exactly the same instant of time, ignoring the effects of Einstein's special theory of relativitity, of course!

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Well, not all of the US uses daylight savings time at all. This proved slightly confusing to me when I went from California (which does use daylight savings time) to Arizona (which doesn't). Most of the year, It was the same time in Arizona (Mountain Standard) as in California (Pacific Daylight) but in the winter, it's not.

Alan Moore

I suppose we could make a chart of times elsewhere based on, say, GMT - but I think I'll just sleep through the whole deal and hope we're all back in sync later on Sunday.

We lose an hour in April and gain it back in October...
And that's just another reason I love Autumn...