Clocks spring forward one hour in the Czech Republic this weekend

Summer time begins in the Czech Republic and much of Europe this weekend as clocks move ahead one hour at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Modern devices such as smart phones automatically process the change, but you might still need to manually update the clock in your car or on your microwave.

While we lose an hour of sleep tonight, we'll get an extra hour of daylight in the coming months. From next week, sunsets will take place at around 7:30 p.m. in Prague.

Summer time is known as daylight saving time in the United States and elsewhere, though clocks in North America already sprang forward two weeks ago. In Europe, the new daytime hours will last for about seven months, through the last weekend in October.

The time change for summer months was originally introduced to extend daylight hours further into the evening and save on electricity costs for lighting. But according to modern energy companies, the savings no longer amount to much.

In contrast, changing the clocks forward and back each year has been found to disrupt sleep cycles and lead to negative health impacts. For years, various initiatives have sought to end the practice. In Europe, summer time may soon be a thing of the past.

Back in 2019, European parliament agreed to abolish the practice, with a goal of ending summer time by 2021. But further steps in coordinating the move among individual member states were not taken due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the issue has been indefinitely postponed.

Owing to the lack of movement in abandoning Summer Time at the EU level, the Czech Republic approved a regulation to continue the practice last autumn. Going forward, clocks will continue to spring forward the last weekend in March, and fall back on the last weekend in October.

Not every clock in Prague will be moving forward this weekend. Prague's famed Astronomical Clock, which dates back to 1410 will keep the same hours as changing its time would throw off the rest of its complex mechanism.

In what is now the Czech Republic, summer time was first introduced in 1915 but abandoned the following year. It was reintroduced in 1940 and lasted through 1949. After 30 years, it was resurrected in 1979 and remains in effect to this day.

While summer time initially covered six months out of the year in the Czech Republic, in 1996 the country joined the EU standard of seven months.

Summer time (or daylight saving time) is utilized in most countries in Europe, the Middle East, North America, and Australia, but does not apply in much of Asia, Africa, and South America.

In Europe, summer time is not used by Russia, Belarus, parts of Greenland, and Norway's Svalbard and Jan Mayen islands.