On Nov. 7 at 2 a.m. local time, the United States and Canada change to standard time. San Benito County, along with the rest of California, falls back to 1:00 a.m. Yes, this is the change where we gain an hour of sleep for one night. Returning to standard time brings both morning light and evening dark an hour earlier.
According to the website https://www.timeanddate.com, parts of Canada used saving time as early as 1908. Germany introduced it in April 1916, two years into World War I, to minimize the use of artificial lighting and save fuel for the war effort. Within a few weeks, Britain, France and other countries followed suit. Most reverted to standard time after World War I, and it wasn’t until World War II that daylight saving time returned to most of Europe. The U.S. took up the mantle in 1966.
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, in the U.S daylight saving time begins the second Sunday in March and ends the first Sunday in November. Not all states follow this plan, Arizona being one of them. Some states are pushing to extend daylight saving time year-round.
Pacific Standard Time is eight hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is the same as Greenwich Mean Time or Greenwich Standard Time. UTC falls along 0 degrees longitude or the prime meridian, which goes through Greenwich, England. Unlike latitude, longitude lines are arbitrary. Latitude is based on the Equator to the North and South poles.
Pacific Daylight Saving Time is seven hours behind UTC.
We need your help. Support local, independent news. BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. It is expensive to produce local news and community support is what keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s news.