Weather Whys: Why don't we stay in Daylight Saving Time all year long?

 

Daylight Saving Time is back and some of you hate it, some of you love it and others could care less. Around this time of year we always get questions of people asking why don't we just stay on DST or stay on standard time.

In its current form about half of the country has reasonable sunrises and sunsets. If Daylight Saving Time were abolished we would have more reasonable sunrise times most of the year but our sunset times would happen pretty early all year long. If we stayed on Daylight Saving Time (which seems to be the most popular) our sunset times would be later all year long but sunrise times would also be later - as late as 8:23 a.m. in the heart of winter. That would mean driving to school and work in pitch black for many people. 

Click here for a helpful blog and link to a tool where you can see what the sunrise and sunset times will be in select cities for each scenario and change the sunrise and sunset times you believe to be 'reasonable'.

Here's a breakdown of each scenario of extreme sunrise and sunset times in southeast Wisconsin. 

As currently observed with Daylight Saving Time from March to November:

Earliest Sunrise: 5:11 a.m. (middle of June)                 
Latest Sunrise: 7:25 a.m. (end of October before DST begins)

Earliest Sunset: 4:16 p.m. (beginning of December)
Latest Sunset: 8:35 p.m. (end of June)

If we got rid of Daylight Saving Time and stayed on standard time all year long:

Earliest Sunrise: 4:11 a.m. (middle of June)
Latest Sunrise: 7:23 a.m. (end of December)

Earliest Sunset: 3:16 p.m. (beginning of December)
Latest Sunset: 7:35 p.m. (end of June)

If we stayed on Daylight Saving Time all year long:

Earliest Sunrise: 5:11 a.m. (middle of June)
Latest Sunrise: 8:23 a.m. (end of December)

Earliest Sunset: 5:16 p.m. (beginning of December)
Latest Sunset: 8:35 p.m. (end of June)