It all started with this simple meme post. In this week's Weatherwise, daylight saving time went into effect this weekend and you folks have some strong, spirited feelings about it all.
The time changed over the weekend whether you like it or not, but many people have strong feelings about whether or not it should ever change again.
The meme about when we "spring forward" received a good reaction and I turned it into a poll: would you prefer daylight saving time year-round, standard time year-round, or keep things as they are?
While the switch to daylight saving time was popular, staying on standard time had the most votes. Keep the time change in the spring and the fall had the least number of votes. Several people suggested splitting the difference by a half hour and then not having a time change. And many people were not in favor of either saving time or standard time, they just wanted to stick with one time and never change again.
In 1974, President Richard Nixon signed into law year-round daylight saving time. The experiment initially was popular with support from 79% of Americans. However, approval quickly plummeted to 42% with the main drawback being prolonged early morning darkness in winter. By October of that year, President Gerald Ford reversed year-round daylight saving time.
Over the last several years, the Sunshine Protection Act has been presented in Congress with the intention of making daylight saving time permanent, but here we are, still with no resolution.
I'm still going with if we have to change, change it on a Monday afternoon so as to not shorten the weekend.
