Daylight saving time: Clocks spring forward this weekend

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Clocks are skipping an hour this weekend for the beginning of daylight saving time, possibly marking one of the last times clocks spring forward in the U.S.  

Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. on Sunday, beginning the annual period when U.S. clocks "spring forward" an hour in March and "fall back" in November. Yes, this means we lose an hour of sleep on Sunday when the clock skips from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m.

Ohio is among 18 states pushing to observe daylight saving time permanently. The U.S. as a whole can only abandon the period if Congress enacts a federal law. Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act that would extend daylight saving time from the March to November period to the entire year. 

If the bill becomes law, clocks will not change after the spring forward on Sunday. The change would mean later sunsets in the winter, but also later sunrises. For example, the sun rises around 7:15 a.m. and sets around 4:30 p.m. on the first day of winter in New York. The Sunshine Protection Act would change sunrise to 8:15 a.m. and sunset to 5:30 p.m.

Supporters of the bill said it would reduce crime in the evening and encourage more after-school activities for children.

To become law, the bill also needs to pass in the U.S. House of Representatives and then be sent to the president’s desk for signing. Though the previous act passed unanimously in the Senate, it wasn’t as well-received in the House.

While most states want to permanently observe daylight saving, states like Colorado, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania want to observe standard time.

As the rest of the U.S. switches to daylight saving, two states change time zones. Arizona shifts from the Pacific Time Zone to the Mountain Time Zone, and Hawaii from five hours behind Eastern Time to six hours behind.

The concept of daylight saving dates to World War I for conserving fuel and power, with Congress setting daylight saving into law with the Uniform Time Act in 1966. In 2006, Congress extended daylight saving from the April to October period to March to November.