DST 2024 ends when clocks fall back to standard time

When you leave work on Monday, you may wonder who turned off the lights and feel decidedly disoriented. Relax. You’ve come down with a classic case of normalcy, assures Philadelphia therapist Tonya Ladipo.

Clocks go back one hour at 01:59:59 on Sunday, and with the return of standard time, our bodies undergo a dramatic reset that goes beyond simply adapting to earlier sunsets and creeping darkness. “It feels like you’re changing your entire schedule because you’re doing things at times that your body might not want to,” says Ladipo. Does that sound familiar?

Her recipe: Focus on the bright side.

It’s not like we’ve lost any light. In fact, we just got an opportunity to gain more from those who study these things say is the most therapeutic light of the day, thanks to the early morning sun — not to mention a precious weekend hour.

Sunday is indeed a new day, with a cuticle of a near-new moon visible in the daytime sky. You might even get to enjoy some “earthshine,” sunlight from Earth that brightens the dark side of the moon and casts the mythically oversized early and late shadows. The sun does some of its best magic at this time of year when it is low in the sky.

Here are some reasons to believe that after recovering an hour, things are looking up.

‘Earthshine’ may be visible in the sky above Philly

The moon isn’t necessarily known for its subtlety, but it will show its subdued side for the next few days, when a curved sliver of it will be visible throughout the day and after sunset.

Chances are that in the twilight you can catch a transparent glow on the unlit part of the moon. That would be easy reflected from Earth, as EarthSky explainsa phenomenon known as “earth shine”.

It is fitting that the moon would give back to us as it owes us its life. As astrophysicist Edward Sion of Villanova University observed, the moon was apparently formed from a part of the Earth that was sent into space when our planet was struck by a Mars-sized object. The moonstone supports this hypothesis, says NASA.

Supermoon IV, the last in 2024, will appear Nov. 15 over Philly

There’s nothing subtle about a supermoon, and we’ll get the fourth in four months on November 15, when our satellite makes one of the closest approaches of the year and reaches instant fullness. This will be the last one in 2024, and a special one. Not only will the moon appear about 30% brighter than it does when it is further away from Earth, but it will rise around 16:20 and reach peak brightness while most people are still awake conspiring with bare trees to create intricate shadows.

The moon will rise even earlier at 2 pm. 3:45 p.m., when it will be about 97% full, and just after 17 on the 16th still 99% full.

Riding an astronomical seesaw, full moons shine longer and higher as the sun’s days grow shorter.

Will Philly get another shot at the Northern Lights?

One reason so many people missed October’s dramatic aurora display over Philly was that the show was so short. But an encore isn’t out of the question, space weather experts say. The longer nights increase the chances that they would be visible. NASA has announced that we are in the “maximum period” of the 11-year solar cycle, when “sunspot” activity is at a peak. Sunspots are solar storms that can eject mass amounts of material toward Earth, igniting the aurora borealis.

The peak could last into the summer of 2026, said Rob Steenburgh, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. “In any case,” he said, “I would expect plenty of opportunities for northern lights in the coming months.”

And a more down-to-earth show looks set to continue in Philly

Dryness aside, it’s hard to complain about an October that featured two full cloudy days, and it looks like the sun will continue to rule the first week of November with comfortable temperatures.

Conditions this week should be ideal for admiring the foliage, which is peaking in parts of the region right now, and its remnants, and don’t miss the treetops during and just after sunset.

Get an extra dose of the best light of the day

In the academic literature, you will find all sorts of perspectives on vitamin D, but everyone agrees that we need it, and the sun remains the best natural source. Experts in seasonal affective disorder and its lesser variant, the “winter blues,” which results from the loss of light this time of year, recommend getting out early and often, and the earlier sunrises mean more opportunities to do just that. Phyllis C. Zee, neurology professor at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, says early morning light is the sun’s best thing of the day because it shines in a “different spectrum” and is “more alarming.”

No matter what, said Ladipo, whose office is in Manayunk, make it a point to get out there sometime: The sun is a source of serotonin, the so-called feel-good hormone. She says she gets out 20 to 30 minutes a day, rain, shine, snow or wintry mix, even though her body resists.

“Halfway through I feel mad and grumpy,” she said. But after feeling the light, “I’m glad I did this.”

Times keep changing, complaints don’t

For those who have experienced these time changes, we would advise getting used to them. State lawmakers have considered 700 bills that would ditch the shift and go with year-round daylight saving time, if Congress were to ever give its approval, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

It’s certainly not going to happen anytime soon; something about a choice.

Pennsylvania has two such bills pending, and Michigan has one. Daylight saving time year-round probably wouldn’t be very popular in the town of Houghton in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where the sun rose Saturday at 8:39. It is on the western border of the Eastern time zone. With all daylight saving time, all the time, Christmas morning, it would get up at 9:39