GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — We gain an extra hour of sleep this Saturday night. We “fall back” an hour — gaining back the hour we “lost” back on March 14 when we moved to daylight saving time. The actual change occurs at 2 a.m., when we move back to 1 a.m. We’ll move back to daylight time on March 13, 2022 (in five months).
Hawaii and part of Arizona don’t do the time changes. The Navajo Nation, part of Arizona, do make the time change as their nation extends into New Mexico and Utah. The “tropical territories” also do not observe the time change — that’s Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa and the Virgin Islands.
There are 70 countries that move to daylight saving time in the warmer months, including most of Canada, Mexico and most of Europe. In the Southern Hemisphere, Chile, Paraguay, New Zealand and a large part of Australia move the clocks with the change of seasons.
There was a time when each town set it’s own time. It might have been 9:42 am in Grand Rapids and 9:45 am in Holland. As travel increased (trains), large parts of the country moved to similar time. Daylight time actually was considered by Benjamin Franklin — to save candles — but was first implemented by Germany during WWI. The U.S. followed in 1918. During the WWII years (1942-45), we stayed on daylight time all year long.
The sunrise and sunset this Saturday are at 8:23 a.m. and 6:28 p.m. On Sunday, the sunrise and sunset will be at 7:24 am and 5:27 pm. On the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21), the sunrise and sunset will be at 8:10 a.m. and 5:11 p.m.