The expected time change to adapt to winter time, it arrives this weekend in Spain and other European countries. In this way, Spaniards will have to turn their clocks back one hour during the early hours of this Saturday, October 26 to Sunday, October 27.
As in previous years, at 3:00 a.m. this Sunday it will be 2:00 a.m.so from then on it will dawn earlier, but there will also be less sunlight in the afternoon, since it will get dark earlier. Therefore, this Sunday will officially last twenty-five hours.
This time change means entry into winter timewhich will last until the last Sunday of March 2025. Its defenders justify it by helping to enhance the energy saving adapting the work day to the hours of sunlight. However, with the arrival of the time change there always arises the debate about whether it is really necessary.
The co-director of the Time-Use Initiative, Ariadna Güell, has referred to this custom of changing the time as a “outdated practice which is still alive thanks to the myth of energy saving, when the most recent studies tell us that this saving is not such, that there is no difference, just a little additional consumption when changing the time” and, however, the measure has “effects negative for health and the economy,” he said in statements to the Efe agency.
The custom “seems to us like it’s been around forever” but in reality, remember, “it has been experimented with” over time and, in fact, The current regulations date back to 1940. when, just after the last Spanish civil war and with the German armies reaping successes in World War II, “the Franco dictatorship decided to align our schedule with that of Germany.”
And this, “despite the fact that winter time is better adapted to the national geographical time than summer time” because “our geographical time, the one in which 12 noon is the time when the sun is highest in the heaven”, actually is the same as that of the United Kingdom, Portugal or the Canary Islands.
This implies that during summer time“Spain registers a 2 hour lag with respect to its geographical time zone”, which is especially notable in Galicia, the westernmost autonomous community of the peninsula, where “during the summer season, the sun does not set until 11 at night”.
Automatic vs manual transmission
When setting the clocks back, it should be taken into account that in some electronic devices this change is done automatically thanks to the NTP network protocol (Network Time Protocol), which synchronizes the clocks of computer systems over a data network with variable latency. This occurs in devices such as smartphonestablets, computers or smart televisions (known as Smart TV).
However, on other devices, such as alarm clocks (digital or analogue) that are not connected to the internet, classic wrist watches or wall clocksthe change will have to be made manual.
Will it end in 2026?
In 2018, a expert commission in Spain to study a reform of the official time. Its function was to prepare a report that evaluated both these two time changes and the convenience of maintaining Central European time in Spain (GMT+1 in winter; GMT+2 in summer). The experts then concluded that “It was not advisable to make any changes. precipitate in time zones as long as there was no shared consensus”.
The purpose of this report was in line with the presentation, by the European Commission, of a proposal for a directive that eliminated the seasonal time changes that are included in the European Time Change Directive. However, this suppression proposal fell on deaf ears and no firm steps have yet been taken. “Until a final decision is madethe current system will remain in force,” they indicate from the European Council.
Therefore, as stated in the Royal Decree 236/2002which regulates the summer time period, the clock will continue to change twice a year until, at least the year 2026.
Güell, for his part, sees an abolition of the time change in Spain as “feasible” by 2026, “in case the European Union gives the green light.” If necessary, the Government You should consider what schedule to determine as fixedsummer or winter time, although according to the barometer published by the CIS in November 2023, 66% of Spaniards would prefer to maintain summer time.
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