Summer is now a thing of the past in Spain and autumn has already set in with the first rains and changes in temperature in our country. This season will last 89 days and will last until December 21, when we will enter winter. Before that will come the classic time change that will take place at the end of October. Find out everything you need to know about the time change in Spain.
Spain Last Sunday, September 22, he said goodbye to summer and with the arrival of October also comes the traditional time change with which in our country we switch to winter time. That is, in the early hours of Saturday 26 to Sunday 27 October, at 3 am it will become 2 am and in our country we will once again be immersed in the period where around 6 pm. It is already dark and dawn rises earlier.
This initiative dates back to 1974, in the midst of the oil crisis, when it was decided to put the clocks forward to consume less electricity and in recent years, many countries around the world European Union They questioned its practice, even going so far as to conduct a consultation in which 4.5 million Europeans participated, 90% of whom opted for the time change as we know it until now.
From Brussels They gave each member country the power to decide its time zone and Ukraine was the first to approve a historic change in Congress. From the last weekend of October (when the time always changes), this country will be on winter time forever. There will be no more time changes. In Spain, although this change has also sparked debate, for now they will continue to support this practice until 2026.
Time change in Spain
The time change has been the subject of debate Spain In recent years, and even before the pandemic, a commission of experts in the field was commissioned to carry out a study on the advisability of changing the current model. The conclusion was that it was not necessary to take hasty measures without a shared consensus and that to achieve this drastic change it was necessary to educate the population.
For this reason, last year 2022 it was published in the Official State Gazette the dates of the time adjustments in accordance with Royal Decree 236/2002. In this way, until 2026, the time change will continue to be carried out in Spain in October for the winter and in March for the summer. These confirmations in the BOE It is usually done with five years’ notice, so we will have to see what happens in the coming years.
If a CIS investigation into TezanosIn 2019, the Spanish were asked about the time change and 62% advocated ending the time change. Within this percentage, 65% chose to always stay on summer time while 24% advocated winter time.
Spain and its time zone
In recent times, Spain’s time zone has also been at the center of a controversy that, since 1940, has been part of Central European Time with other countries like France, Italy, Germany and all the countries of Central Europe. By position, Spain should share its time with Portugal or the United Kingdom, which are in GMT+1.
It comes from the decision he made at the time Francisco Franco for “the convenience of the national time being in accordance with that of other European countries.” Thus, on the night of March 16, 1940, eleven o’clock became noon to correspond to the time zone of Hitler’s Germany and the rest of the countries of Central Europe. Although many years have passed, Spain is still in a time zone that does not belong to it due to its geographical location. We will have to see what will happen regarding the change of time from 2026, although everything indicates that in our country there are followers with two schedules, one for winter and one for summer.
