New Daylight Saving Time Awakening Y2K Fears

In three weeks, Minnesotans could be missing business appointments and airline connections, but they might be too happy to care.

An early start to daylight saving time will add an hour of sunlight in the evening beginning March 11, thanks to a federal law passed two years ago to encourage energy saving. That's three weeks earlier than the "spring ahead" switch we've followed for more than 20 years, and lasts one week later in the fall.

The extra sunlight could help people shake the winter blues, but the prospect of confused Blackberrys and muddled airline schedules has already prompted comparisons to the technology scramble that preceded Y2K.

Computer and software companies are telling their users that some electronic devices might be preprogrammed for the old time change.

Bank deposits, stock trades, cell-phone bills, online auctions: All could be affected by the earlier time change, according to a report by the Gartner Group, a technology consulting firm. Meanwhile, the airline industry is raising the prospect of mass disruption in flight schedules, especially with connecting flights to international routes. The disruption posed by daylight-saving switch, however, is still small-scale compared with the Y2K scenario.

That was a major worry about seven years ago, when businesses and governments spent billions of dollars making sure that their computers would be able to make the change from 1999 to 2000.

Still, "It doesn't have to be Y2K to spell trouble for companies and governments in America and around the world," said Phil Bond, president and chief executive of the Information Technology Association of America. "Organizations could face significant losses if they are not prepared."

Gladness, some gloom

Congress was thinking of light bulbs, not mood swings, but the early-onset time change also could turn out to be an unexpected benefit, said doctors and professionals who study the depression that can result from winter darkness.

"To the extent that someone can spend more time in the sun, or in a sunny area inside, that will be helpful for people with seasonal affective disorder," said Dr. Gregory Sullivan, medical director of the SAD Clinic at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia in New York City.

But the time change is bringing its own gloom to the airline industry, which issued a dire prediction about potential scheduling mixups affecting as many as 51,000 international flights.

Northwest Airlines referred questions to the Air Transport Association, an industry group, which warned that domestic flights connecting with international destinations will be affected, too. The intricate arrangements governing airport gate slots outside the United States could be thrown off when we switch to daylight saving time two weeks before Europe does.

"Domestic schedules will not be finely coordinated with international flights, and passengers will be faced with connection times that are either an extra hour in length or impossibly short, resulting in missed connections," the group said in a report issued this month.

Several large Minnesota businesses said that they're on top of the time change and that customers shouldn't see any effect.

"We're confident that it's going to be business as usual for our customers," said Richele Messick, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo. "Wells Fargo has been preparing for the new daylight-saving changes for a couple of months."

Xcel Energy said it's testing and changing time-critical systems where needed.

Microsoft's website warns of potential problems with its Windows and Outlook programs, among others, but says that in many cases, users can simply reset the clock manually. For those more tech-inclined, Microsoft and other major softwaremakers offer downloadable patches that will get programs to update automatically.

Still, Microsoft says that users of its software "should give extra attention to meetings and appointments" scheduled during the new changeover period, viewing them as "suspect" and double-checking the time with all participants.

Mats Heimdahl, director of the Software Engineering Center at the University of Minnesota, isn't losing any sleep over this.

"The only thing that will come out of this is that some people will have the wrong time on their PC," he said. "People getting the wrong meeting times, things like that - I could see that happening, but that falls under minor nuisances as far as I'm concerned.

"It's not the end of the world if you miss a meeting."

John Reinan - 612-673-7402

KEEPING TIME

Sunset on March 11:

7:13 p.m.

It was April 2 last year before Minnesota got that much evening light.

THE HISTORY

In 1966, Congress set daylight saving time to begin in April and end in October but temporarily extended the period during the energy crisis of the mid-1970s.

In 1986, Congress scheduled daylight saving to start at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in April and to end on the last Sunday in October. And there it had remained for 20 years.

Although Congress had stopped meddling during that time, some states and counties kept feuding. After resisting for years, Indiana adopted daylight saving time last year. But Hawaii does not recognize it, nor does Arizona, except on its large Navajo Reservation.

- Washington Post

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