Lo, the glories of standard time in June
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Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
In the never-ending debate about daylight saving time, one western state is unique — and by God, I'm gonna miss it.
State of play: I've been in Tucson for the past week, and my whole family slipped into Arizona's standard-time summer like we were born for it.
- That's because we were.
The big picture: The DST dispute fundamentally weighs money-making against health.
- DST is associated with higher consumer spending as people stay out later.
- But science shows standard time better aligns with our natural sleep cycles.
Threat level: Spring forward correlates with more illness and injury than fall back does, from heart attacks to car wrecks.
The intrigue: The anti-DST argument often focuses on the dark mornings we'd have to endure in winter.
- But as summer solstice approaches, it's Utah's late sunsets that my family is dreading after a week of fairly pleasant June evenings in a much hotter state.
Zoom in: When we arrived for a 7pm dinner reservation here, I was shocked to find a dusky patio full of happy patrons after a 101°F day.
- No one I know in Salt Lake City wants to squint on a patio that soon after triple-digit temps. As every bedtime-averse Utah toddler knows, 7pm is still afternoon in summer.
Early the next morning, my kid happily yawned, "It's so nice to wake up when it's really, actually light out."
Between the lines: DST has gobbled up more of the calendar as winters have gotten shorter.
- Polling shows most Americans want the changes to stop, but care less about which schedule we choose.
Yes, but: Utah is near the western edge of our time zone.
- That means our DST is about 90 minutes ahead of a "normal" day.
Catch up quick: Federal law allows states to declare permanent standard time, but bars permanent DST.
- If that changes, Utah will shift to permanent DST under a 2020 trigger law passed by the Legislature.
- A 2025 proposal to adopt permanent standard time passed the state House but died in a Senate committee despite widespread constituent support.
The bottom line: When this issue inevitably resurfaces in the dead of winter, try to remember that our decision will also matter each increasingly hot summer.