DST, SPRING AND THE CONFUSED

Here are a few facts for the confused out there, including (and especially) the newscasters (because they're all big fans of my blog):

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME 2010 starts on Sunday, March 14th at 2 A.M. That means that when you go to bed Saturday night, set your clocks forward an hour, as we will 'spring forward' (as opposed to our 'fall back' in the Autumn). DST did not start last night, nor does it mean the beginning of Spring. If you changed your clocks last night, you will find yourself incredibly early for lunch today, unless you're in a part of the world that does not recognise DST. DST was brought about to reduce evening usage of incandescent lighting, formerly a primary use of electricity. There are a lot of arguments at to whether or not there is much benefit to it now, other than we get an extra awesome hour of daylight in the afternoons. It's also worth a shot to try and trick your kids for a while because maybe if it's still dark in the morning, they'll think it's still night and go back to sleep for another hour on the weekends.

SPRING 2010 (the Vernal Equinox) begins on Saturday, March 20th, in the Northern Hemisphere. The Equinox has little to do with Daylight Savings Time and much more to do with the position of the Earth and the Sun.

AN EQUINOX IS NOT A SOLSTICE. We (the Northern Hemisphere) celebrate an equinox in the Spring (Vernal Equinox) and in the Fall (Autumnal Equinox). On a day of the equinox, the centre of the Sun spends a roughly equal amount of time above and below the horizon, night and day being of roughly the same length. We celebrate the Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice when the tilt of the Earth's axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun's apparent position in the sky to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme. The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year whereas the Winter Solstice celebrates the shortest day of the year.

Happy Springing!