The first signs of autumn are arriving: children are going back to school, cafes have announced dates for the launch of autumnal drinks, and seasonal decorations have gone up.
And with autumn comes the time change – whether you are a fan of it or not.
There are still more than two months until the time change, but the days are already getting shorter.
As Illinois approaches its time change to 2024, here’s everything you need to know about the time change.
When do we change our clocks?
Under federal law, daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March and lasts until the first Sunday in November in most parts of the United States.
This year that date falls on November 3rd and the clocks will go back one hour at 2am that morning.
What is daylight saving time?
Daylight saving time is a time change that usually begins in the spring and ends in the fall. This is often referred to as “spring forward” or “fall back.”
According to the provisions of the Energy Policy Act 2005, daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.
On these days the clocks are either set forward or back one hour.
But it wasn’t always like this.
Previously, the clocks were put forward on the first Sunday in April and remained that way until the last Sunday in October, but the change was introduced in part to give children more daylight while playing trick-or-treating.
In the USA, daylight saving time lasts a total of 34 weeks, from early/mid-March to early November in the states where it applies.
Some people like to call Benjamin Franklin the inventor of daylight saving time when he wrote in a 1784 essay on saving candles: “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” But this was meant more as satire than serious thought.
Germany was the first country to introduce daylight saving time during World War I on May 1, 1916, to save fuel. The rest of Europe soon followed.
The United States did not introduce daylight saving time until March 19, 1918. It was unpopular and was abolished after the First World War.
On February 9, 1942, Franklin Roosevelt introduced year-round daylight saving time, which he called “war time.” It lasted until September 30, 1945.
Daylight saving time did not become standard in the United States until the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which mandated standard time nationwide within specified time zones. It stipulated that clocks would be moved forward one hour at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in April and moved back one hour at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October.
States could still opt out of daylight saving time as long as the entire country did so. In the 1970s, due to the 1973 oil embargo, Congress passed a trial period of year-round daylight saving time from January 1974 to April 1975 to save energy.
When will daylight saving time be reintroduced?
In 2025, daylight saving time will be reintroduced on March 9 and the clocks will be put forward then.
In which states does daylight saving time apply?
Almost all U.S. states observe daylight saving time, with the exception of Arizona (although some Native American tribes observe daylight saving time in their territories) and Hawaii. U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, do not observe daylight saving time.
When does autumn 2024 begin?
Although meteorological autumn begins on September 1, the autumn equinox – or astronomical autumn – is September 22.
“The autumnal equinox is an astronomical event that marks the beginning of autumn,” says an article in the Old Farmers Almanac. “In the Northern Hemisphere, the autumnal equinox occurs in September, and in the Southern Hemisphere, in March.”
“After the autumn equinox, the days become shorter than the nights as the sun rises later and night falls earlier,” the post continues. “This ends with the winter solstice, after which the days become longer again.”
