We’ve already welcomed spring and Easter will be here soon. So we’re about to move towards the time change, which arrives at the end of the month. So get ready to sleep an hour less. On the other hand, you’ll be able to enjoy more hours of sunshine.
Daylight saving time officially arrives this weekend, in the early hours of next Sunday, March 30.
In mainland Portugal and the autonomous region of Madeira, the clocks will go forward by one hour when it’s 1am, making it 2am. In the autonomous region of the Azores, the time change is at midnight, when it becomes 1am.
A look at the history of the time change
As usual with Porto Secreto, we’d like to share some historical trivia on this subject. According to an article in Rádio Renascença, during World War I, energy consumption proved to be a problem due to the war effort.
In this context, in order to reduce the constraints related to saving coal, the possibility of changing the time to maximize daylight was debated. In 1916, Germany formally adopted the time change.
When is the next change?
Time adjustments happen twice a year, and the legal time will change again on October 26, when winter time will be officially adopted.
This scenario complies with a directive (EU law) from 2000, which provides for all clocks to be set forward and back by one hour on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October.