"Frans W. Maes" wrote: > There is a lot of factual info on your site (and the rest of the web) > about DST. What is puzzling me is the following. From 1977 on we > (in the Netherlands) had DST from the last weekend in March to the > last weekend in September. Loosely speaking: while solar > declination was positive. In 1996, the European Union adopted the > British rule, moving the end of DST to the last weekend of October. > Without moving the start of DST to the last weekend of February. > Why this assymmetry? Apparently another factor than day length got > into play. A political gesture to keep GB in the EU? Or just the > average temperature? Even then, WHY?
Hi Frans, As far as I can tell it was a political decision. In 1980 most of the EC observed the same begin and end dates for the DST period, whereas the United Kingdom usually started about a week earlier and ended about a month later. In 1981 the UK partly harmonized its DST period with the EC by beginning on the same day as the other EC member states. But it was not until 1996 when the EC member states harmonized the end of the DST period with that of the UK. I do not know whether astronomers (or other scientists) were ever consulted in choosing the best dates for the DST period. If so, I do not know their names. Regards, ======================================================== * Robert H. van Gent * Tel/Fax: 00-31-30-2720269 * * Zaagmolenkade 50 * * * 3515 AE Utrecht * E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * The Netherlands * * ******************************************************** * Home page: http://www.phys.uu.nl/~vgent/homepage.htm * ========================================================
