SUMMER TIME CHANGE 2022. It is in spring that the transition to summer time takes place, and the date is approaching! Rules, day and time concerned, end of the time change… Instructions and questions / answers.
The essential
The 2022 summer time change is scheduled for the last weekend of March, on the night of Saturday March 26 to Sunday March 27, 2022. At two o’clock in the morning, it will be three o’clock. We will artificially lose an hour of sleep but will gain, just as artificially, an hour of natural light at the end of the day. In other words, the sun will set an hour later, but will also rise an hour later. We will then have a two hour difference with solar time (GMT+2) instead of one hour (GMT+1) during winter time.
Questions answers
For the transition to summer time, should you move your watch forward or backward?
This is not to confuse them! Unlike the transition to winter time, the transition to summer time requiresmoving forward his one hour watch. As a reminder, the official time in France then goes from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m., and this, instantly.
When exactly does daylight saving time take place?
The transition to summer time always takes place on the last weekend of March, with a subtlety to be aware of: it must be the last weekend full Of March. In 2022, the question does not arise since the month of March ends on a Thursday (the 31st) and not a Saturday, as has sometimes been the case.
Change of summer time 2022: how it works!
You are aware that summer and winter time changes exist, but you get confused every time on how they work? You are in the right place ! Welcome to this Questions / Answers page dedicated to the 2022 summer time change. Its content will be enriched over the days to offer you a 360° view of this measure, which changes our daily lives twice a year!
Learn more
The daylight saving time change always takes place on the last (full) weekend of March, at 2 a.m., on the night of Saturday to Sunday. The 2022 summer time change therefore takes place on the night of Saturday March 26 to Sunday March 27, 2022, with a jump in the hands from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m.
During the summer time change, at 2 am, you always have to advance the hands of your old watch or your ancestral clock by one hour. At 2 o’clock, France goes instantly to 3 o’clock. In more technical terms, the Hexagon “switches” from GMT+1 (winter time) to GMT+2 (summer time). If an hour of sleep is “lost” in this way, night falls, on the other hand, an hour later. The maneuver therefore artificially loses one hour of sleep, but also artificially gains one hour of natural light at the end of the day, in addition to the natural and progressive lengthening of the days as the sun approaches. summer solstice, in June. Of course, smartphones like all connected devices switch to summer time automatically, without any intervention being necessary.
Not only is the March 2022 daylight saving time change not the last, corn several other time changes are yet to follow. According to the European Commission, quoted by Le Figaro.fr, the abolition of the time change will probably not take place in 2022. Apart from the delay caused by the Covid health crisis, what is blocking is the harmonization between member states. The European Union indeed knows three time zones today, and an EU directive suggests letting each State choose whether or not to abolish the time change, and then switch to either winter time or permanent summer time. This European Union directive has been validated by the European Parliament in March 2019, but it must also be done by the Council of Ministers (which unites the representatives of the different EU Member States). This is where negotiations stall.
As EELV MEP Karima Delli, who oversees the reform in Brussels, recently told the Sud Ouest newspaper, the situation is “at a standstill”. On March 26, 2021, the MEP already deplored that “several states in southern Europe were not particularly in favor of the end of the time change, unlike countries in northern Europe. Everyone had their own idea “. Due to the current blockage, “it would be extremely difficult to envisage an end to the time change for 2022 or [même] 2023”, she concluded.
In February 2018, the European Parliament polled EU citizens on the subject of the time change. Among the 4.6 million Europeans who responded, 84% said they were in favor of the end of the time change. In March 2019, a citizen consultation, conducted in France this time with 2.1 million participants, via the National Assembly website, had also given a clear French preference for the end of the time change (83.71%). And the French were also quite clear (nearly 60%) in favor of permanently staying on summer time as permanent seasonal time: 59.17% of respondents chose this option compared to 36.97% for summer time. winter, yet closer to so-called “solar” or natural time. 46.62% invoked health and biological rhythms; 22.15% of respondents explained their choice by their desire to allow the development of leisure activities at the end of the day; 10.16% intended to promote energy savings; 10.72% ensure smooth functioning of exchanges with neighboring countries and finally 8.93% mentioned road safety.
41% of respondents “for permanent winter time”, in a recent study
Have attitudes changed since the official consultation in 2019? According to an exclusive survey conducted by YouGov France for Internet users*, to the question “In the long term, to what extent are you for or against staying permanently on winter time?”. 41% of respondents answered “For”, 40% declared themselves “Against”. The result is therefore very tight. If we refine the verdict, 18% of respondents say they are “totally for” staying permanently on winter time, when 23% are “rather for”.
On the other hand, 22% of French people questioned say they are “totally against” permanent winter time, and 18% “rather against”. 19% of respondents simply do not know whether they are for or against winter time all year round, in other words a permanent one-hour difference with solar time, compared to a two-hour difference when is summer time.
* Survey carried out in line from October 6 to 7, 2021, out of 1,007 people representative of the French national population aged 18 and over.
The time change was introduced in several European countries in the 1970s. The price of energy was then increased tenfold by the first oil shocks caused by theOPEC. France, for its part, adopted the measure of summer time in 1976. Objective: to save electricity by artificially grabbing one hour of natural light in the morning. A controversial credo for several decades because of the collateral negative effects of the seasonal double time change, without sufficient benefits in return. Time change dates were harmonized in the 1980s between EU member states, to promote smooth communication and transport between them.