Yesterday (March 15), the United States Senate unanimously passed a bill to keep Daylight Savings Time throughout the year instead of moving ahead an hour in March and dropping back an hour in late-October/early November.
While good in theory, if approved (it wouldn’t take effect until the fall of 2023 under the current bill), it could have a significant impact on people who are up early – especially kids heading to school.
In Minnesota, because of our northern proximity, keeping clocks on Daylight Savings Time will mean that from approximately November 8 to Feb. 22, the sun won’t rise until after 8 a.m.
Starting around Dec. 1 and running until about Feb. 1, twilight won’t begin until after 8 a.m. and sunrise won’t occur until 8:30 a.m. or later. In the final few days of December into the first few days of January, under the new proposed time configuration, the sun won’t rise until 8:49 a.m.
While the good news for those opposed to switching clocks back and forth is that the sun won’t go down until after 5:30 p.m. at any time during the year, for those who are early risers, commuters and/or have kids to get to the school bus in the morning, prepare to do it in the dark for the vast majority of the winter months.
Click here to see the current daily times for twilight, sunrise and sunset – keeping in mind that, if the bill passes by the House of Representative and signed by President Biden the sunrise-sunset times from early November to mid-March would be an hour later. Sunrise-Sunset Times