Did You Remember to Change Your Clocks?

Californians moved their clocks forward one hour early Sunday, as most of the nation moved into daylight saving time.

But Baja California will not make the shift until the first Sunday in April, meaning that clocks south of the border will remain on Pacific Standard Time for the next four weeks. Starting Sunday, the local time in Tijuana is one hour earlier than it is in San Diego.

Twenty-eight days from now, Tijuanans will move their clocks forward, and will again be synchronized with California. Last year when this happened, many businesses in Baja simply observed San Diego time.

Last year was the first time that the U.S. and Mexico went to daylight saving time on different dates. Tens of thousands of workers, students and others who made daily commutes north or south across the international boundary had to contend with an official time difference at the line.

The unprecedented local time difference between San Diego and Tijuana was the result of a decision by the U.S. Congress to extend daylight saving time one month each into spring and fall. Although Canada followed Washington, Mexico didn't.

Arizonans and Hawaiians are allowed to stay on standard time year-round, meaning they did not change their clocks today. As a result, California effectively slid into Phoenix's time zone, Denver stayed one hour earlier than L.A., and the time difference from Hawaii to California grew from two hours to three hours.

Hawaiians do not observe daylight saving time, as they live closer to the equator and have days and nights of nearly-equal duration all year round.

The Legislature there has seen no reason to need to shift clocks.
 

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