When Does Daylight Saving Time Start In 2026: What To Know In RI

In less than a month, Rhode Islanders will see lighter early evenings as the time moves ahead an hour with the beginning of daylight saving time on March 8.

That means sunset will be at 6:44 p.m. that Sunday. Sunset will come 1 to 3 minutes later each day, with the fastest gains around the vernal equinox on March 20, until about a week after the summer solstice on June 21, due to the Equation of Time (the difference between clock time and solar time) and Earth’s tilt. That puts the latest sunset between June 25-28. This year, it occurs on June 27.

Sunrise comes later, too. On March 9, the first day of the school and work week, the sun will come up at about 7:07 a.m. in Rhode Island.

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The “lock the clock” debate that gave hope to fans of year-round daylight saving time faded quickly. The Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act in 2022, but it has since been stalled by disagreements over whether to adopt daylight saving or standard time as the year-round permanent time.

The Standard Time Act of 1918 established time zones and temporary DST, an idea first widely adopted in Germany as a fuel-saving measure in World War I. Called “war time,” it was in effect from February 1942 to September 1945. After the war, states and cities set their own policies, resulting in widespread confusion that led to the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which established daylight saving time in effect from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.

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In response to the energy crisis triggered by the OPEC oil embargo, Congress passed legislation in December 1973 to temporarily bring it back for two years. Early support, around 79%, when the law took effect on Jan. 6, 1974, quickly plummeted to around 42% within a month as safety concerns mounted, according to National Opinion Research Center polls

In the early weeks of the time switch, eight students were fatally struck in Florida as they walked to school in the predawn winter darkness. In Connecticut, on the day the law took effect, four students were struck as they walked to school before sunrise.

That fall, Americans turned their clocks back an hour after President Gerald Ford signed an amendment that returned the nation to standard time from Oct. 27, 1974, through the last Saturday in February 1975.

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The current March to November schedule for DST took effect in 2007 under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Only 12% of U.S. adults favor the current system of daylight saving time, while 47% are opposed and 40% are neutral, according to an Associated Press/NORC poll last fall.

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If they had to choose one time for the country to use, more than half of adults — 56% — prefer making daylight saving time permanent, with less light in the morning and more light in the evening. About 4 in 10 prefer standard time, with more light in the morning and less in the evening.

A Gallup poll last spring showed support for DST was highest in the 1990s, when support hovered between 74% and 73 percent of U.S. adults, but dropped to 40% by 2025.

An informal Patch survey in 2024 was generally in keeping with what scientific polls have shown. Respondents were nearly divided on whether to make daylight saving or standard the year-round permanent time, although slightly more favored year-round DST.

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