Illinois will soon spring forward and lose sleep. Here’s when daylight saving time begins
If you’re in need of more sunlight, you don’t have to wait much longer. Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 10, when Illinois residents “spring forward” and move their clocks ahead one hour.
Spring officially begins Tuesday, March 19, and southwestern Illinois and St. Louis residents have already seen temperatures start to warm up recently after a period of cold, snowy and icy weather. Average temperatures typically start exceeding 50 degrees Fahrenheit in Belleville by April.
But will Illinois put an end to the tradition of changing clocks twice a year? Here’s what to know.
Daylight saving legislation in Illinois, across US
Bills relating to daylight saving time often circulate the Illinois legislature. One recent effort was House Bill 0216, which would institute year-round daylight saving time in the Land of Lincoln.
The “Permanent Daylight Saving Time” bill was introduced in January 2021, but essentially died when the state’s 102nd General Assembly adjourned in January 2023.
The recent bill was far from the only effort to end clock-changing in Illinois, and the U.S. Senate has signed off on similar legislation for the nation. So far, Hawaii and Arizona are the only states in the country that don’t observe daylight saving time, and the Navajo Nation portion of Arizona does practice daylight saving.
History of daylight saving
The original daylight saving law passed the U.S. Congress in 1918, and state governments were left with the decision to keep or scrap it after World War I, CNBC previously reported.
The Uniform Time Act was passed in 1966 and requires state governments that choose to observe daylight saving to begin and end the practice on federally determined dates.
“Under the Uniform Time Act, States may choose to exempt themselves from observing Daylight Saving Time by State law,” the U.S. Department of Transportation website reads. “States do not have the authority to choose to be on permanent Daylight Saving Time.”
This year’s daylight saving time will end at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 3.
This story was originally published January 30, 2024 at 10:50 AM.
