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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
Sophie Buchan

What time the clocks go forward tonight as we welcome British Summer Time

The tail end of March has seen Glaswegians basking in unseasonably warm temperatures and gorgeous sunny days - and this weekend is no different.

So the news that we're only at the beginning of the warmer days and longer nights will surely be welcome news.

Tonight (or more accurately, in the very early hours of tomorrow), the UK will set their clocks forward one hour for the beginning of British Summer Time.

And while the pessimists among us might bemoan the loss of an hour of sleep, the optimists will surely celebrate the longer daylight hours.

But why does this happen, and is there anything you need to do?

When do the clocks go forward?

Each year the clocks go forward on the last Sunday in March – and this year that falls at 1am on Sunday (March 27) meaning the time will actually be 2am.

The reason it happens so early at night is to ensure there is limited disruption for schools and businesses.

As the saying goes, spring forward, fall back. When the clocks go forward in March, we enter British Summer Time (BST) and leave behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) for seven months allowing for the long, summer nights we all look forward to in Glasgow.

This means that from tomorrow we will see the sun out for more hours and it won't be pitch black when you get up or leave work.

In autumn the clocks will then go back again on the final Sunday of October.

Do smartphones and other devices automatically update?

Yes - you don't need to do anything as your phone will automatically update.

The same applies to your smartwatch and any other smart devices - such as Alexa - provided you're connected to the internet via 4G or WIFI.

But if you have clocks on the wall or sitting on the shelf, you may need to update them - so be sure not to forget!

Why do we have British Summer Time?

According to iNews, the campaign for British Summer Time came about at the beginning of the 20th century to allow us to have lighter and longer evenings.

The idea was proposed in the UK by builder William Willett, says Dr Richard Dunn, senior curator for the History of Science at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

According to him "Willett was incensed at the 'waste' of useful daylight during the summer. Though the sun had been up for hours as he rode his horse through Chislehurst and Petts Wood, people were still asleep in bed."

BST was then adopted in Britain in 1916 to save fuel and money.

To this day, the UK has contemplated changing the clocks many times - including bringing them forward two hours ahead of GMT during the Second World War.

They were also said to have been brought forward for periods in the spring of 1947, in line with fuel shortages with experiments taking place between 1968 and 1971 which kept clocks one hour ahead of GMT all year round.

Britain then reverted to our now familiar system of GMT in the winter and summer time in between March and October.

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