Cuba Continues Daylight Saving Schedule in 2008

Cuba will officially observe daylight saving time at midnight between Saturday and Sunday when the clocks will turn one hour ahead to 1am on March 16, 2008. Daylight saving time is used as a way to save energy by extending daylight, therefore reducing the need to use artificial lighting.

Supporters of Daylight Saving

Supporters of daylight saving time in Cuba believe that the extra hour of sunlight in the afternoon could counter for potential summer blackouts caused by power plant failures. Blackouts caused by power plant failures have occurred in Cuba’s recent past. In 2004 a thermoelectric power plant suffered a serious malfunction, causing a wave of blackouts of up to 12 hours each day. Other people, including expatriates, have expressed the need for the daylight saving time schedule to remain consistent each year.

Calls to Scrap Daylight Saving

Some Cubans see no benefit in daylight saving and have called for daylight saving time to be scrapped. Some people expressed discomfort with changing their body clocks in synchronization with the daylight saving hours. Others believed that the daylight saving changes did not help save energy. For example, in October 2007 an official from the Cuban Electric Union complained that energy consumption could increase as a result of daylight saving time.

During daylight saving time, Cuba is four hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and the same as Eastern Daylight Time in the United States and Canada. Regardless of Cuba’s daylight saving plans in the future, the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base observes daylight saving time in synchronization with their Florida headquarters in the United States.

History

Daylight saving time was first introduced in Cuba in 1928 but it was not widely accepted until World War II. After the war, daylight saving time was no longer observed until 1965. In 2004 Cuba remained on daylight saving time until October 29, 2006. Cuba was in a perpetual state of daylight saving time during that period. After two years operating all year-round without changing from “summer” to "normal" time, Cuba decided to re-establish standard time on October 29, 2006. Cuba again observed daylight saving time in 2007 and plans to stick to the daylight saving time schedule in 2008.

Dates of Daylight Saving Time 1980–2008

These are the dates Daylight Saving Time started and ended in Havana.

Year	Start date	End date	Daylight duration
1970	Apr 26	Oct 25	26 weeks
1971	Apr 25	Oct 31	27 weeks
1972	Apr 30	Oct 8	23 weeks
1973	Apr 29	Oct 8	23 weeks and 1 day
1974	Apr 28	Oct 8	23 weeks and 2 days
1975	Apr 27	Oct 26	26 weeks
1976	Apr 25	Oct 31	27 weeks
1977	Apr 24	Oct 30	27 weeks
1978	May 7	Oct 8	22 weeks
1979	Mar 18	Oct 14	30 weeks
1980	Mar 16	Oct 12	30 weeks
1981	May 10	Oct 11	22 weeks
1982	May 9	Oct 10	22 weeks
1983	May 8	Oct 9	22 weeks
1984	May 6	Oct 14	23 weeks
1985	May 5	Oct 13	23 weeks
1986	Mar 16	Oct 12	30 weeks
1987	Mar 15	Oct 11	30 weeks
1988	Mar 20	Oct 9	29 weeks
1989	Mar 19	Oct 8	29 weeks
1990	Apr 1	Oct 14	28 weeks
1991	Apr 7	Oct 13	27 weeks
1992	Apr 5	Oct 11	27 weeks
1993	Apr 4	Oct 10	27 weeks
1994	Apr 3	Oct 9	27 weeks
1995	Apr 2	Oct 8	27 weeks
1996	Apr 7	Oct 6	26 weeks
1997	Apr 6	Oct 12	27 weeks
1998	Mar 29	Oct 25	30 weeks
1999	Mar 28	Oct 31	31 weeks
2000	Apr 2	Oct 29	30 weeks
2001	Apr 1	Oct 28	30 weeks
2002	Apr 7	Oct 27	29 weeks
2003	Apr 6	Oct 26	29 weeks
2004–2006	Sunday, March 28, 2004	Sunday, October 29, 2006	135 weeks
2007	Mar 11	Oct 28	33 weeks
2008	Mar 16	Oct 26	32 weeks
2009	Mar 8	Oct 25	33 weeks
2010	Mar 14	Oct 31	33 weeks
2011	Mar 20	Nov 13	34 weeks
2012	Apr 1	Nov 4	31 weeks
2013	Mar 10	Nov 3	34 weeks
2014	Mar 9	Nov 2	34 weeks
2015	Mar 8	Nov 1	34 weeks