RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — As an unseasonably warm Virginia winter comes to an end, spring is soon to arrive across the commonwealth — and along with it, daylight saving time.
Whether you love the time change or hate it — in the spring, most everyone can agree daylight saving brings much-appreciated hours of sunlight after a season lacking in access to the free vitamin D.
This year, the time change for daylight saving will occur on Sunday, March 12 at 2 a.m. At this time, clocks will either automatically move forward to 3 a.m. — depending on the device — or they will need to be set forward manually.
The result of the time change will be a later sunset, elongating evening daylight hours, and a later sunrise. This means that while the Richmond sunset on March 11 will be at 6:13 p.m., the next day, sunset will be at 7:13 p.m. The same idea follows with sunrise, which will be at 6:27 a.m. in Richmond on March 11, and 7:25 a.m. on the 12.
Following March 12, the days will continue to grow longer until the longest day of the year — June 12, the summer solstice.
Daylight saving itself will continue until Nov. 5, at which point clocks will be turned back an hour, and the United States will return to the longer nights and shorter days associated with the winter season.
While controversy surrounds the benefits of switching from daylight saving time back to Standard Time, most recently, an effort to move Virginia to year-round daylight saving time failed in the state Senate in January.
