When Do Clocks Change For Daylight Saving Time 2017 For Fall? U.S. Time Change Was In October Not Too Long Ago

Right about now the Daylight Saving Time clock change for the fall of 2017 feels overdue and people are taking to online search engines looking for the “DST clock change date this fall.” The search engines are seeing their fair share of searches for “When does the time change for Daylight Saving Time 2017?” or “When is the Daylight Saving Time clock change this fall?” along with all types of variations wanting to know the same thing — what date does the DST clock change take place for 2017, especially now that the autumn leaves are flying in the October wind?

If you feel like Daylight Saving Time should be here this coming weekend, you are not alone, as the Daylight Saving Time program ended in October not too many years ago. That was before the government made the decision to stretch out DST for another week back in 2007. In the fall the Daylight Saving program actually ends for the year, putting the nation back on Standard Time.

Daylight Saving Time was once abolished, which many are advocating for today. The Wall Street Journal reports that two states in New England are making waves to do away with the time change, opting to keep the afternoons lighter in the fall and in winter instead of getting darker an hour earlier when the clocks are changed. Maine and Massachusetts are making a movement advocating for the region’s clocks to spring ahead an hour and stay that way all year-round. The idea of abolishing the Daylight Saving Time program came up back when World War I ended. Although the president at the time, Woodrow Wilson, wanted to keep the program going, the pressure was on to end it and it was put to bed.

It took the beginning of World War II and a new president to wake up Daylight Saving Time and put it back in place. On February 9, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt re-established the Daylight Saving Time program, but this time it went year-round. It was called “War Time” during this era.

Then a chaotic time in DST history bubbled up when the war ended and the government started a free-for-all with clock changes. In this nation, the states, cities, and towns were given the choice if they wanted to follow DST or not. That decision “led to chaos,” according to Live Science.

How could the nation run with different times in different locations? It didn’t fare well, so in 1966 Congress made the attempt to “tame such Wild West mayhem” with the different times in different locations. They set forth the Uniform Time Act. This left it up to the state government only if they wanted to follow the DST or not. Towns and cities could no longer make their own decision on the Daylight Saving Time program; they needed to abide by what their state mandated.

This is when the Daylight Saving Time started each year on the first Sunday in April (not in March) and ended on the last Sunday in October (not during the month of November like today). That was what people became accustomed to for the next several decades until the next change was implemented.

According to Live Science, “Then, in 2007, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 went into effect, expanding the length of daylight saving time to the present timing.” Today, Daylight Saving Time starts the second Sunday in March and it ends on the first Sunday in November.

For 2017, the Daylight Saving Time clock change in the fall is Sunday, November 5.

For 2018, the Daylight Saving Time clock change for the spring will occur on Sunday, March 11.

[Featured Image by Tetyana Afanasyeva/Shutterstock]