Kansas will spring forward soon and lose sleep. Here’s when daylight saving time begins
Wichita residents will soon enjoy more sunlight each day. Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 10, when Kansas residents “spring forward” and move their clocks ahead one hour.
Spring officially begins Tuesday, March 19, and central Kansas may see some wintry weather linger, while Wichita’s forecast includes temperatures reaching up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the coming week. Average overall temperatures typically surpass 50 degrees in April in Wichita.
But will Kansas put an end to the tradition of changing clocks twice a year? Here’s what to know.
Daylight saving legislation in Kansas and nationwide
Kansas legislators introduced a bill to establish permanent daylight saving time in the state in 2021, but it died in committee in 2022. State lawmakers have also tried to exempt Kansas from daylight saving time and were unsuccessful.
These recent bills were far from the only effort to end clock-changing, and the U.S. Senate has signed off on similar legislation for the nation. So far, Hawaii and Arizona are the only states that don’t observe daylight saving time, and the Navajo Nation portion of Arizona does practice it.
History of daylight saving
The original daylight saving law passed the U.S. Congress in 1918, and state governments were left with the decision to keep or scrap it after World War I, CNBC previously reported.
The Uniform Time Act was passed in 1966 and requires state governments that choose to observe daylight saving to begin and end the practice on federally determined dates.
“Under the Uniform Time Act, States may choose to exempt themselves from observing Daylight Saving Time by State law,” the U.S. Department of Transportation website reads. “States do not have the authority to choose to be on permanent Daylight Saving Time.”
This year’s daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 3.
This story was originally published January 31, 2024 at 10:09 AM.
