Spring forward: Daylight saving time goes into effect at 2 a.m. Sunday

ALBANY — A sign that spring is just around the corner, clocks in Georgia and most of the country will be moved forward an hour effective at 2 a.m. Sunday as daylight saving time takes effect.

The result of the annual change from standard time to daylight saving time (DST) is that it is lighter during evening waking hours. For instance, the official sundown for Albany today is 6:38 p.m. On Sunday evening, the sun will set at 7:39 p.m. The effect, of course, will be more pronounced as the Northern Hemisphere moves toward summer. With daylight lasting up to 14 hours and 12 minutes of the day in late June, sunsets will be as late as 8:46 p.m. with twilight lasting until 9:14 p.m.

This year, which goes into effect throughout the United States with the exceptions of Hawaii and parts of Arizona, concludes on Nov. 1. The 34-week period from the second Sunday in March until the first Sunday in November has been in effect since 2007 under the congressional Energy Policy Act of 2005. Before that, the 30-week DST period lasted from the first Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October.

According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, time zones have been established by U.S. law for less than a century. The USNO notes that time zones were instituted by U.S. railroads as early as 1883, but the Standard Time Act by Congress did not go into effect until March 1918.

Daylight saving time was in that act, but was repealed the next year and reverted to a local matter. The USNO says was re-established nationally in World War II and was used continuously from Feb. 2, 1942 until Sept. 30, 1945, when it returned to a local issue. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 provided unified start and end dates for DST as the last Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October, but also allowed for local opt outs.

During the energy crisis, DST started on Jan. 6, 1974 and Feb. 23, 1975 before reverting to the ‘66 schedule, and in 1986 the DST period was first extended by act of Congress to start on the first Sunday of April beginning on April 5, 1987.

Public safety officials over the years have used the biannual time changes between DST and standard time to promote safety, reminding people to place fresh batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in homes when they move their clocks ahead and back.

And as drivers heading to work in the mornings physically adjust to getting up an hour earlier to go to their jobs, law enforcement officials have reminded motorists to be more alert for children walking to school and getting on school buses — as well as other pedestrians — during the darker mornings. On Monday, for example, sunrise won’t be until 7:55 a.m., with twilight starting about 7:31 a.m., which means it will be dark when many students are heading to school.