News & Tech

Spring forward fall back. The buffoons in the US Congress extended Daylight Saving Time this year and it seemed like it would never end, but it finally does tonight. The time change will kick in at 2 a.m. local time in everywhere across America except for Arizona and parts of Indiana. So tonight clocks fall back from 1:59 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. And the extra hour of sleep comes with a warning.

Daylight Saving Time Ends: Safety Reminder for Smoke Detectors

Many fire departments encourage people to change the batteries in their smoke detectors when they change their clocks because Daylight Saving Time provides a convenient reminder. "A working smoke detector more than doubles a person's chances of surviving a home fire," says William McNabb of the Troy Fire Department in Michigan. More than 90 percent of homes in the United States have smoke detectors, but one-third are estimated to have dead or missing batteries.


So - change the batteries and test the fire alarm tonight. Go out hit Wal-Mart, buy some batteries and make the move. It could save you and your family. One interesting note online tells why the time is changed at 2:00am. According to this article, "It was originally chosen as the changeover time because it was practical and minimized disruption. Most people were at home and this was the time when the fewest trains were running."

"It is late enough to minimally affect bars and restaurants, and it prevents the day from switching to yesterday, which would be confusing. It is early enough that the entire continental U.S. switches by daybreak, and the changeover occurs before most early shift workers and early churchgoers are affected."