'Double Summertime': The World War Two phenomenon that meant two extra hours of daylight

Tonight our clocks spring forward, marking the start of British Summer Time.

Unfortunately it means an hour less in bed on Sunday morning, but it does mean lighter evenings as sunset times will be an hour later.

But did you know that during the Second World War, Britain was outside of its’ normal time zone?

When British Summer Time ended in October 1940 the clocks were not put back an hour, meaning that the country remained ahead one hour until spring 1941.

In that spring the clocks were still put ahead one hour, meaning that for the rest of the war we had two hours of extra daylight at the end of the day.

This decision was made by the British government to support the war effort as extra evening daylight saved fuel and, during the Blitz, gave workers extra time to get home before the blackout began.

This was called “Double Summertime” and throughout the years there have been many calls for it to make a return.

Today our sunset times across the country vary. For the likes of Aberdeen the sun will set at 6:39pm, but tomorrow it will be around 7:41pm.

For Glasgow today, sunset is 6:46pm whereas tomorrow it will set at 7:48pm. But what’s the point of an early sunset if there’s no sun?

Unfortunately, we will be seeing unsettled conditions throughout the rest of the weekend and into the start of next week with cloud, blustery showers and strong winds – so despite the extra daylight, it’s still not quite time to get those BBQs out.