Western European Summer Time (WEST) is a summer daylight saving time scheme, 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used in the following places:
Western European Summer Time is also known by other names:
- British Summer Time (BST) in the United Kingdom.
- Irish Standard Time (IST)[1] (Am Caighdeánach na hÉireann (ACÉ)[2]) in Ireland. Also sometimes erroneously referred to as Irish Summer Time (Am Samhraidh na hÉireann).
The scheme runs from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October each year. At both the start and end of the schemes, clock changes take place at 01:00 UTC. During the winter, Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0) is used.
The start and end dates of the scheme are somewhat asymmetrical in terms of daylight hours: the vernal time of year with a similar amount of daylight to late October is mid-February, well before the start of summer time. The asymmetry reflects temperature more than the length of daylight.
Usage
The following countries and territories use Western European Summer Time during the summer, between 1:00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1:00 UTC on the last Sunday of October.
- Canary Islands, regularly since 1980 (rest of Spain is CEST, i.e. UTC+2)
- Faroe Islands, regularly since 1981
- The Republic of Ireland
- 1916–1939 summers IST
- 1940–1946 all year IST
- 1947–1968 summers IST
- 1968–1971 all year IST
- 1972— summers IST
- Portugal
- 1977–1992 WEST
- 1993–1995 CEST
- 1996— WEST (except Azores, UTC)
- The United Kingdom
- 1916–1939 summers BST
- 1940–1945 all year BST (1941–1945 summers BDST=BST+1)
- 1946 summer BST
- 1947 summer BST (1947 summer BDST=BST+1)
- 1948–1968 summers BST
- 1968–1971 all year BST
- 1972— summers BST
Republic of Ireland
The Standard Time Act 1968 [3] stipulated that standard time is GMT+1 (CET) and from 1968 clocks were not turned back one hour during winter. The subsequent Standard Time (Amendment) Act, 1971 [4] effectively reversed this, and from 1971 returned winter time to Greenwich Mean Time, it did not however change the names of the Irish summer time zone, which are still, officially, Irish Standard Time (IST) and Am Caighdeánach na hÉireann (ACÉ).
Portugal
Portugal moved to Central European Time and Central European Summer Time in 1992, but reverted to Western European Time in 1996 after concluding that energy savings were small, it had a disturbing effect on children's sleeping habits as it would not get dark until 22:00 or 22:30 in summer evenings with repercussions on standards of learning and school performance, and insurance companies reported a rise in the number of accidents.[5]
United Kingdom
Starting in 1916, the dates for the beginning and end of BST each year were mandated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In February 2002, the Summer Time Order 2002[6] permanently changed the dates and times to match European rules for moving to and from daylight saving time. The European compromise was closer to previous British practice than to the practice elsewhere in Europe.
Occasional debate breaks out over the validity of BST, due to Britain's latitudinal length. In 2004, an interesting contribution was made by English MP Nigel Beard, who tabled a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons proposing that England and Wales should be able to determine their own time independently of Scotland and Northern Ireland. If it had been passed into law, this bill would potentially have seen the United Kingdom with two different timezones for the first time since the abolition of Dublin Mean Time (25 minutes behind Greenwich) on August 23, 1916.
During World War II, Britain retained the hour's advance on GMT at the start of the winter of 1940 and continued to advance the clocks by an extra hour during the summers until the end of the summer of 1944. During these summers Britain was thus 2 hours ahead of GMT and operating on British Double Summer Time (BDST). The clocks were not advanced for the summer of 1945 and were reverted to GMT at the end of the summer of 1945. In 1947 the clocks were advanced by one hour twice during the spring and put back twice during the autumn so that Britain was on BDST during the height of the summer.
Safety campaigners, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), have made recommendations that British Summer Time be maintained during the winter months, and that a "double summertime" be applied to the current British Summer Time period, putting the UK two hours ahead of GMT during summer. RoSPA suggest this would reduce the number of accidents over this period as a result of the lighter evenings, as was demonstrated when the British Standard Time scheme was trialled between 1968 and 1971, when Britain remained on GMT+1 all year. Analysis of accident data during the experiment indicated that while there had been an increase in casualties in the morning, there had been a substantially greater decrease in casualties in the evening, with a total of around 2,500 fewer people killed and seriously injured during the first two winters of the experiment. RoSPA have called for the two year trial to be repeated with modern evaluation methods. The proposal is opposed by farmers and other outdoor workers, and many residents of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as it would mean that, in northern Britain and Northern Ireland, the winter sunrise would not occur until 10:00 or even later.
In 2005, Lord Tanlaw introduced the Lighter Evenings (Experiment) Bill [1] into the House of Lords, which would advance winter and summer time by one hour for a three-year trial period at the discretion of "devolved bodies", allowing Scotland and Northern Ireland the option not to take part. The proposal was rejected by the government. The bill received its second reading on 24 March 2006; it is unlikely to pass as it is not supported by the Government. [7]
The Local Government Association has called for a three-year trial of the Single/Double Summer Time (SDST).[8]
Start and end dates of British Summer Time and Irish Standard Time
Note: Until 1 October 1916 time in all of Ireland was based on Dublin Mean Time which was GMT − 25 minutes.
References
Further reading
- Prerau, David. Saving the Daylight: Why We Put the Clocks Forward (ISBN 1-86207-796-7) — The Story of Summer Time/Daylight Saving Time with a focus on the UK
External links
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