Northwest Iowa — We’ve had some spring-like days in the past few weeks, and while the calendar won’t say spring until March 19th — a week from Tuesday — it’s time to “spring ahead” to “Daylight Saving Time” this weekend.
Daylight Saving Time returns at 2:00 a.m. this Sunday morning, March 10th. You’ll have to turn your clocks AHEAD one hour if you don’t want to be an hour late for church on Sunday morning. Some newer clocks and the clocks on computers and smartphones change automatically, but many devices still need to be manually set.
The law authorizing Daylight Saving Time was signed into law on March 15th, 1918 with the Calder Act, which was implemented to help conserve fuel during WWI. It’s been modified several times, including year-round “War Time” during WWII. The latest modification was called the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks, but it actually didn’t take effect until 2007.
Fire safety experts remind us that as long as you’re going around your house changing clocks, you might as well take some batteries with you on your journey around the house and change out your smoke alarm batteries as well.
Fire safety experts say that not only should you have smoke alarms installed on every floor of your home but in every bedroom as well. The U.S. Fire Administration says that you should change the batteries at least every year unless the alarms are over ten years old. If that’s the case, the whole alarm should be replaced.
