How permanent daylight saving would affect central Ohio

(NEXSTAR) — The bill to make daylight saving time permanent passed the Senate and is heading to the House of Representatives. We would not notice the impact of this until the winter of 2024/2025 if the bill clears all the hurdles.

If the bill clears, it would make both sunsets and sunrises one hour later during the winter, eliminating the “fall back” part of daylight saving time.

What does this mean for central Ohio?

Right now, the earliest sunset for our area is around 5:06 p.m. in early December each year. The new sunset would be an hour later at 6:06 p.m. Currently, sunsets don’t hit that time until mid-February.

Your Christmas Eve sunset would be at 6:11 p.m.

Right now, the latest sunrise for our area is around 7:53 a.m. starting in late December through early January each year. The new sunrise would be an hour later at 8:53 a.m.; there is currently no time of the year when the sun rises that late in the morning.

That would mean on Thanksgiving morning, the sun would rise at about 8:28 a.m. and on New Year’s morning, the sun would rise at 8:53 a.m. Sleeping in until sunrise will bring a new meaning here in central Ohio.

The spring, summer, and most of all fall would remain at the current sunrise and sunset as we remain on daylight saving time.

In the end, we would have darkness later in the morning and then more sun into the late afternoon through the winter months. The day is not shorter or longer, as the earth’s rotation will not change; just the clocks change.

We will still have the shortest day length around Dec. 21, with 9 hours, 19 minutes, and 56 seconds of daylight, which is the same, but just starts later on our clocks.