Here's Why Daylight Saving Time Ends in November This Year

You've already said farewell to Summer and stocked up on pumpkin spice everything, but you might be wondering when the real sign of seasonal change will arrive: the end of daylight saving time. Nothing says sweater weather and the Mariah Carey Christmas station like short days and long nights, so when does daylight saving time actually end in 2017?

While we sprang forward on March 12 this year, we won't fall back until Sunday, Nov. 5. If you're old enough to remember a time before 2007, then you might recall daylight saving time ending closer to Halloween. That's because from 1987 through 2006, daylight saving time started on the first Sunday in April and lasted through the last Sunday in October. Then, the US changed the dates to correspond with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, a bill designed to counteract America's energy problems.

If you're looking for someone to blame for the loss of sunlight, direct your ire at the noble Benjamin Franklin. According to David Prerau, author of Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time, Franklin suggested resetting clocks in the Summer to conserve energy. But it wasn't until about a century later when Germany and the rest of Europe adopted the technique during World War I, and the US followed along in 1918.