As the spring like weather kicks in, you may have already noticed the days are getting longer. Each year, in early March, we do the "Spring Forward" thing. Daylight Saving time is one of those things you either love or hate. But are we saving anything?
The Earth is divided into 24 time zones, each roughly 15 degrees wide. In a perfect world, these lines would be straight. But they twist and turn around countries and states. Louisiana fits directly in the middle of the Central Time Zone. Noon, the time that the sun is at it's highest point in the sky generally happens close to 12 o'clock in Acadiana, give or take a few minutes throughout the year. But when we advance the clocks, solar noon is now one o'clock. So no, we're not saving, we're borrowing the morning sun and putting it at the end of the day.
"And with one little adjustment of the clock, we go from this...
to THIS!"
And Sunday morning, we're mandated by law to make this shift. The government is literally STEALING an hour away from your weekend!
Now, for many of you this will give you time after work to do the things you love. Going for a hike, playing an extra round of golf, cutting grass or walking the dog. But it comes at a price. You will be technically be getting up an hour earlier. You'll be exhausted until you get used to it. Kids will be walking to the bus stop in the dark. It will be harder to see them.
The morning commute will be darker. Drivers will be less alert. Studies have shown that the risk of a heart attack jumps 24% on the Monday after the time change. But, longer evenings encourage folks to get out of their house, exercising more. The tourism industry benefits from the change, and people are more likely to spend time shopping or dining out boosting the economy. We are already gaining one to two minutes of daylight each day until June. So we could let this happen naturally, or like most of us, "Don't care how, I want it NOW!"