Summer Time arrives

News & Press: Natural world

27 March 2021 (0 Comments)

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Although no longer in the EU, UK is still adopting the EU Directive for ’Summer Time’.

The 2002 Directive stated that Daylight Saving Time (DST) would be observed between 0100 UTC on the last Sundays in March and October. So, this year clocks in UK revert to British Summer Time (BST) on 28 March until 31 October.

But frustration with this bi-annual clock change had, in 2018, led the European Parliament to draft a law to permanently remove DST in the EU. The draft law proposed that 2021 would be the last time EU Member States and affiliated countries follow the seasonal clock change.

What happens in the future is far from certain. Some countries are proposing to continue unchanged, some to abandon DST altogether, some to adopt permanent DST and others to adopt DST with double DST in Summer. We await legislation in UK.

Meteorological Summer runs for 3 months from 1 June, with Astronomical Summer starting at the Summer Solstice, this year at 0432 BST on 21 June.

Image from the EU and further details from timeanddate.com