When Will British Summer Time Begin?

3 days ago

The sun is out, the sky is blue, the evenings are longer and temperatures are creeping up from freezing to mild. But when will the clocks change to kick off British summer time proper?

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Flourishing greenery and flowers, al fresco drinking and dining, sundresses… British summer time, we can almost taste you. As the sun shines brighter each morning and sets a little later each evening, you might be reminded that the clocks are due to change sometime soon. Here’s when we will ‘spring forward’.

When Do The Clocks Change In Spring 2024?

The clocks will change at 1am on Sunday 30 March. The time will ‘spring forward’ by one hour to 2am – meaning one less hour in bed. It’s worth it, though: from now on, the sun will rise earlier and set later, firmly heralding the start of British summer just 10 days after the astronomical first day of spring.

Your phone and most electronic devices connected to the internet will change automatically, but you will have to change any manual clocks and watches yourself.

The last time the clocks changed was Sunday 27 October 2024, when they ‘fell back’ by an hour. This moved the country back into GMT for the winter period, lasting about five months.

Do We Get An Extra Hour Of Sleep?

On the contrary: when the clocks change this spring, we lose an hour in bed. To avoid disruption, try to get an early night on Saturday 29 March.

Why This Date?

In the UK, the date the clocks change is not selected at random: the clocks always ‘spring forward’ one hour into British Summer Time (BST) on the last Sunday of March, and ‘fall back’ into Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on the last Sunday of October. This is in line with the EU, which stipulated in 2002 that all member states should adjust their clocks on the last Sunday in March and October.

Before that, the 1972 Summer Time Act stipulated ‘the period of summer time […] is the period beginning at two o’clock, Greenwich mean time, in the morning of the day after the third Saturday in March or, if that day is Easter Day, the day after the second Saturday in March, and ending at two o’clock, Greenwich mean time, in the morning of the day after the fourth Saturday in October.’ In short, BST commenced on the third Sunday in March, unless it was Easter, then it was the second Sunday. This would have aligned the change more closely with the Spring Equinox.

In the US, the clocks spring forward on the second Sunday of March and fall back on the first Sunday of November – the same as the UK from 1972 to 2002. However, only 48 of the US’ 50 states take part, with Hawaii and Arizona abstaining. In total, around 70 countries around the world use Daylight Saving, including every EU member state excluding Iceland.

Overhead look at picnic spread with people sat together on blanket

Jonathan Borba, Unsplash

What Is Daylight Saving?

From Sunday 30 March, the UK’s time zone will be British Summer Time (aka BST). This is our nation’s Daylight Saving effort, which shifts an hour of sunlight from the morning to the evening, meaning the sun sets one hour later and the evenings seem longer (no more going home from work in the dark).

The practice dates back to 1916, when Daylight Saving was implemented during WWI. In WWII, the efforts were doubled: British Double Summer Time saw the clocks jump forward not one but two hours, all in the name of productivity.

Interestingly, BST is less controversial than GMT, with many people believing the UK should operate on BST year-round (perhaps with British Double Summer Time in the summer months) to lengthen the evenings and save energy. The main barrier here, however, is the far north of Scotland: if BST was kept up in winter, the sun wouldn’t rise until 10am in some areas.