Daylight Saving Time 2016: Turn Clocks Ahead

Barbecues, flip-flops, garden seeds – don’t break them out just yet. Well, we’ve all grilled out already.

While spring doesn’t begin until March 20, the first hint of it comes when Daylight Saving Time officially begins on Sunday, March 13.

The time change officially takes place at 2 a.m., so change your microwave and old-school clocks before you head to bed Saturday night. The change is automatic for most smartphones, computers, tablets and other digital devices.

One other thing to do Saturday night: Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Just before you move that clock hand forward an hour, push the test button on the smoke and carbon monoxide alarm(s) in your home. If they do not work, replace the battery -- unless it is a sealed 10-year lithium battery, in which case you will have to get a new alarm.

Maryland and many other parts of the country have had a taste of spring this week with highs in the 70s and low 80s, some 20 degrees above normal.

And it will feel like spring on Sunday just because of sunlight later in the day. Sunset in Baltimore on March 13 will be at 7:11 p.m.; the sun is up until 6:55 p.m. in Chicago, and until 6:59 p.m. in Los Angeles.

Still, the longer days and the beginning of daylight saving time are associated with the end of the SAD (seasonal affected disorder) season, giving people an extra hour of daylight to enjoy after they got off work. SAD is clinical form of depression that is believed to affect about 5 percent of the U.S. population.

Michael Downing, the author of "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time," says one of the largest supporters of the annual clock change is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Business owners find that as the days grow longer, people shop more, with the golf and barbecue industries earning some of the biggest benefits, reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars, reports CNBC.

Critics say the lost hour of sleep harm's our health, from increased strokes and heart attacks to lost productivity and workplace injuries.

Here’s a bonus for you sticklers for accuracy out there: Though many people refer to the day clocks move forward as the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, it’s technically Daylight Saving Time.

And when does it end? DST will last until Nov. 6, 2016.

The change affects all states except Arizona and Hawaii.

Tell Us:

What are you looking forward to most about the beginning of daylight saving time?

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Patch file photo