Twice-yearly time change allows best of both

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 17, 2021

OK, here it is, the weekend where the clocks spring forward. I happen to like the time change in the spring that allows for a so-called extra hour of sunlight. To be honest there is no extra hour of sunlight with Daylight Savings Time. All that has happened is a shift of our clocks by an hour. The tilt of the rotation of the Earth in relation to the Sun and our orbit changes the amount of sunlight that hits any one place on the earth each day. This also gives us our seasons.

In Western Washington in the winter the sun is up about 8.5 hours a day. During the summer we get about 16 hours of sunlight a day. Nothing that we do with our clocks can change that.

In the winter the sunrise is around 7:45 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Sunset is around 4:30 p.m. PST. In the summer sunrise is around 5 a.m. with sunset at about 9 p.m.

If we were to not have semiannual time changes this is what happens. If we stay on Standard Time then in the summer the sunrise will be about 4 a.m. and sunset will be about 8 p.m., both a bit early for me. If Daylight Savings Time is chosen then in the winter sunrise will be around 8:45 a.m. and that is too late.

I will take a couple of days of adjustment each spring and fall.

Casey McLaughlin

Snohomish