Sunday marks a promising day on the calendar, as the U.S. is now just one month away from the start of daylight saving time.
The annual tradition of springing clocks forward will take place on Sunday, March 12, and will take Chicago’s sunset time and push it all the way to 6:54 p.m.
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WATCH HEREUnder U.S. law, daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March, and runs all the way through the first Sunday in November, adding an extra hour of daylight onto the end of the day.
As things currently stand, sunset takes place at 5:21 p.m. in Chicago, with just over 10 hours and 30 minutes of daylight per day.
By the end of February, the city will receive more than 11 hours of daylight per day, a sure sign that spring is rapidly approaching.
Daylight saving time was an idea first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in the 1780’s, and while its adaptation was inconsistently-applied around the U.S. for decades, it became codified into law with the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
The law has been amended a few times since then, but as things currently stand, all U.S. states observe daylight saving time except for Arizona (though some Native-American reservations do observe the practice) and Hawaii.
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Several U.S. territories, including Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, also do not observe daylight saving time.
Proposals to make daylight saving time permanent have been floated on several occasions, with the Sunshine Protection Act passing the Senate in 2022. The House did not vote on the law however, and the seating of a new Congress earlier this year means that the bill would have to be reintroduced and voted on in order to become law.
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