October is the month in which the second of the time changes that must be made each year in Spain and other European countries occurs. This time change means entry into winter timewhich will run until the last Sunday of March 2025.
When will it take place? As usual, the fall time change takes place on the last weekend of October, which in this case coincides with early morning from Saturday the 26th to Sunday the 27th.
That will be when we will have to delay one hour all watches, so at 03:00 a.m. it will be 02:00 a.m.. In this way, Sunday, October 27, will have an official duration of twenty-five hours, compared to the 24 hours that a day has.
From that date on, in Spain it will dawn an hour earlier, but also it will get dark sooner. Although its main objective is to promote energy savings by adapting the working day to the hours of sunlight, doubts about the effectiveness of this measure have not stopped growing.
When setting the clocks back, it should be taken into account that in some electronic devices this change is done automatically thanks to the NTP network protocol (Network Time Protocol), which synchronizes the clocks of computer systems over a data network with variable latency. This will be the case on devices such as smartphones, tablets, computers or smart televisions.
However, for other devices, such as alarm clocks (digital or analog) that are not connected to the Internet, classic wrist watches or wall clocks, you will have to make the change manually.
Why does the time keep changing?
The practice of time change was established during the First World War and It began to become widespread in 1974starting with the first oil crisis, when some countries decided to advance the clock to make better use of sunlight and thus consume less electricity for lighting.
In Europe, the first provisions on summer time were adopted in 1980 and since 2000 the rules that mark their start in march and its completion in October when the European Time Change Directive.
According to estimates by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), the potential savings in lighting could reach around 300 million euros, which is equivalent only to 5% of the total. Of that amount, 90 million corresponds to the potential of Spanish homes, which represents a saving of 6 euros per home and the remaining 210 million would be saved in buildings in the tertiary sector and in industry.
The debate on the time change has not been without controversy in Europe and, particularly, in Spain. So much so that in 2018 it was created a commission of experts to study a reform of the official time. Its function was to prepare a report that evaluated both these two time changes and the convenience of maintaining central European time in Spain (GMT+1 in winter; GMT+2 in summer).
The debate on the time change has not been without controversy in Europe and, particularly, in Spain. So much so that in 2018 it was created a commission of experts to study a reform of the official time. Its function was to prepare a report that evaluated both these two time changes and the convenience of maintaining central European time in Spain (GMT+1 in winter; GMT+2 in summer).
The experts then concluded that “It was not advisable to make any hasty changes. in time zones as long as there was no shared consensus”.
The purpose of this report was in line with the presentation, by the European Commission, of a proposed directive that eliminated time changes seasonal. However, this suppression proposal fell on deaf ears and no firm steps have yet been taken. “Until a final decision is made, the current system will remain in force,” they indicate. from the European Council.
Therefore, as stated in the Royal Decree 236/2002which regulates the summer time period, is the clock will keep changing twice a year until at least the year 2026.
