• Alfred
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Topic: Changing the clocks

In this post Eric mentioned that in New Zealand it’s now late winter coming into spring.

New Zealand is currently on New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), which is UTC +12. It will switch to New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT), which is UTC +13, on 28 September 2025.

The United Kingdom is currently on British Summer Time (BST), which is UTC +1. It will switch to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is UTC +0, on 26 October 2025.

The east coasts of the United States and Canada are currently on Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), which is UTC -4. They will switch to Eastern Standard Time (EST), which is UTC -5, on 2 November 2025.

The west coasts of the United States and Canada are currently on Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), which is UTC -7. They will switch to Pacific Standard Time (PST), which is UTC -8, on 2 November 2025.

“Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.”
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2 Reply by GB (edited by GB 2025-09-14 19:05:55)

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Re: Changing the clocks

I am quite neutral about changing clock time twice a year. I guess I'm pretty well used to it. (During the war Britain even had Double Summer Time - 2 hours advance on GMT.) But what I do find peculiar is that so many want BST, DST and the like to apply throughout the year. Abe Lincoln was supposed to have said, ".... you can't fool all the people all of the time!" He must turn in his grave whenever that proposal is made. If changing clocks is deemed unnecessary, then let's stick with real time, as provided by the sun! If people want to get up, go to bed, start work, eat dinner at a different time summer or winter, what is stopping them?

Or maybe:

https://i.postimg.cc/H8xrGc7V/New-clock.jpg

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Re: Changing the clocks

In NZ we are permanently on plus 30 minutes to what we should be in relation to our position on the planet.  In summer with Summer Time this becomes 90 minutes.  Personally I'd like us to go to plus 60 minutes all year and not muck around altering clocks every six months.

Going OT - have you ever noticed how much magnetic north differs from true north.  Apparently the difference varies around the world.  It's approximately 20 degrees difference here.

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Re: Changing the clocks

ericlnz wrote:

Going OT - have you ever noticed how much magnetic north differs from true north.  Apparently the difference varies around the world.  It's approximately 20 degrees difference here.

The difference varies not only around the world but also over time. At Greenwich in early September 2019 the declination (the angle between true north and magnetic north) was zero for the first time in about 360 years.

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Re: Changing the clocks

GB wrote:

If people want to get up, go to bed, start work, eat dinner at a different time summer or winter, what is stopping them?

Many employees have flexible working hours nowadays, but that’s clearly not an option for any occupations governed by timetables (e.g. teaching or train driving).

“Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.”
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Re: Changing the clocks

I am puzzled why, when the variation is so small from London, it is very great from NZ which is globally nearly diametrically opposite. I would have expected the respective variations to be very close. If for instance magnetic north is 1 degree longitude west of true north from London, wouldn't it be just 1 degree east from NZ? The latitude of magnetic north shouldn't make much difference.

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Re: Changing the clocks

Where in particular in NZ, Geoff? Given that New Zealand is long and thin, I would expect it to make quite a difference.

The Antipode of London, United Kingdom, is Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.

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8 Reply by GB

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Re: Changing the clocks

I would expect it to make quite a difference

As much as 20 degrees?

Copilot gives the antipode of Aukland as Setenil de las Bodegas, Andalusia, and the variation of magnetic north there as 1.2° West. Why is it not the same as for Aukland? Does the position of Earth's magnetism vary with one's position on the surface?

The answer may be obvious if one had a globe, but I don't have one.

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Re: Changing the clocks

According to what I read the variation can differ around our planet due to local conditions.

I found this site https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/declination.shtml

Using it to check Auckland it shows our city centre had on 17 September 2025 a variation of 20° 16' E  ± 0° 20'  changing by  0° 4' E per year.

So my 20 degrees was spot on.

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Re: Changing the clocks

For London the geomag site says 1° 7' E.

A big difference to NZ.  Maybe the earth's central core gets in the way?

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Re: Changing the clocks

GB wrote:

Setenil de las Bodegas, Andalusia

https://www.andaluciamia.com/en/setenil … -sillages/

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12 Reply by Ali

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Re: Changing the clocks

GB wrote:

I am quite neutral about changing clock time twice a year. I guess I'm pretty well used to it. (During the war Britain even had Double Summer Time - 2 hours advance on GMT.)

My dad always tells the story of a local villager who put his clocks forward instead of back in the autumn and arrived for chapel four hours early on the Sunday morning ...

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Re: Changing the clocks

Ali wrote:
GB wrote:

I am quite neutral about changing clock time twice a year. I guess I'm pretty well used to it. (During the war Britain even had Double Summer Time - 2 hours advance on GMT.)

My dad always tells the story of a local villager who put his clocks forward instead of back in the autumn and arrived for chapel four hours early on the Sunday morning ...

Four hours early?? I can understand his arriving two hours early, because I did that myself once — mistakenly reasoning that if you put a meeting back by an hour then it takes place an hour later, so putting the clocks back from 11 o’clock should mean changing them to 12 o’clock — but when I arrived at the local supermarket it was practically deserted, and according to the time displayed on the wall clock behind the checkouts it was mid-morning instead of early afternoon.

“Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.”
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Re: Changing the clocks

Four hours early??

I believe Ali is talking about when there was double summer time. But the two hour change was done in two stages, I believe, not all at once - but I was very young at the time so my memory my be wrong and there was a two hour change all at once.

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Re: Changing the clocks

You’re not wrong, Geoff! British Double Summer Time (BDST) was introduced during the Second World War by not putting the clocks back at the end of summer in 1940, but continuing to put the clocks forward each spring in subsequent years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_S … _deviation

“Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.”
― Eckhart Tolle