On the last Sunday in March at 2 o’clock we “skip” an hour and set the clock until 3. It has been an annual tradition in Norway from 1980 and in certain periods earlier in the 20th century.
Norway keeps Central European Time (CET) and adjusts between summer and winter time in line with the EU countries, among other things for reasons of business. For several years, the EU has considered dropping the clock setting, which some believe destroys circadian rhythms and is confusing for livestock, but so far no decision has been reached.
– We will wait for the decision from the EU before we decide whether we should stop setting the clock. For several reasons, including the business world, it would be an advantage to have the same solution as our nearest neighboring countries, says Industry Minister Jan Christian Vestre, who is responsible for the Swedish Regulatory Agency and thus decides what is the right time in this country, in a press release.
Analogue wristwatch and oven clock
Winter time is actually called standard time, and it is this that is the “real” time zone we have.
Setting the clock has become less of a ritual as more of our clocks have been connected to the internet.
– Simple clocks, such as analog wristwatches or the clock on the oven, you have to adjust yourself, while digital clocks connected to the network usually set themselves, writes Justerveseten in a press release.
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They are responsible for Norway’s official time, which means that, among other things, they must adjust atomic clocks in the lab, research time and contribute to the system for the world‘s common time, UTC. However, they do not have the task of setting digital clocks for summer time.
In the press release, they explain how the clocks on devices such as PCs and mobiles are set to summer time, and that it is the operating system in the device that ensures this.
– The vast majority of operating systems obtain time from time servers that use the Network Time Protocol (NTP). Justervesen has an open time server that provides UTC time over the network to computers. This NTP server responds to approximately 300 requests per second, which equates to approximately 20-25 million per day.
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This is how you remember which way the clock is set
And for those of you who struggle to remember which way to set the clock, there are several rules to remember. One is that you set the clock towards summer, i.e. forward in the spring and back in the autumn. Another is that you long for summer in spring and back to summer in autumn. A third and more concrete rule is that the garden furniture is put out before the summer and returned when the summer is over.
– The fact that we are now setting the clock forward one hour means brighter afternoons and that spring is in the air. By setting the clock forward one hour, we “lose” the hour between 02:00 and 03:00. However, we will get this hour back in the autumn when the clock will be set back to normal time again, says the Minister for Business.
Facts about summer time
- The proposal to stop setting the clock twice a year stipulates that each country will be allowed to choose its time zone. We thus risk that some of the countries we share time with today – all of whom follow Central European Time – change time zones. It may mean that we have to set the clock more often than before when we go abroad – even if it’s just a short trip in Europe – as we already do if we go to the UK or Finland, for example.
- Today, both Sweden, Finland and Denmark have summer time arrangements like us. Russia and Iceland do not have it.
- The historical reason for the summer time scheme was energy saving. Some countries introduced daylight saving time during the First World War to save coal to be used in the war. It is said that George Hudson was the first to propose daylight savings time. He was a researcher and wanted more sun in the evening to collect insects.
Source: Press release from the Ministry of Trade and Fisheries
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