As I recall, when the DR experimented with time changes under Hippo back in 2000(?) it was daylight with roosters crowing before 5am and dark about 4:30pm.
Utter confusion & it lasted about 2 weeks, as I recall.
Ah, just found some old articles on DR1
OCTOBER 24, 2000. Daylight savings time causes confusion
Just six days remain before Dominicans are scheduled to turn their clocks back by one hour, but ?differences and confusions among citizens and sectors? are sufficiently pronounced to justify the lead headline in today?s Listin Diario. The daylight savings measure, promulgated by President Hipolito Mejia last September 26, is scheduled to take effect next Sunday night. Proponents of the measure had argued that the integration of another hour of daylight in the workday would be good way to conserve electrical energy.
It was also argued that the measure would make commercial contacts between the DR and the U.S. more congruent.
Opponents of the measure have expressed skepticism as to the efficacy of the measure. One critic, Norberto Quezada, is quoted as saying that the only benefit will be to afford delinquents an extra hour for criminal activity. Ordinary citizens are said to be confused as to how the new clock will affect their jobs, commutation to work, and children?s schooling.
DECEMBER 4, 2000Getting up an hour earlier
This Monday morning was especially hard on all in the DR. Everyone had to get up an hour earlier. At 2 am on Sunday, 3 December clocks had been set ahead to remedy what a general consensus felt had been a mistake, the equating of the time in the DR with the eastern coast of the USA or implementing Daylight Saving Time.
The Dominican Republic is now again on Atlantic Standard Time (AST). The Dominican Republic is -4h or 4 hours West of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) which means that it is 4 hours ahead of the time in the Village
of Greenwich, England which was selected as the location of the Prime Meridian or 0 Degrees.
DR1 reader, Sang Wong helped us with the explanation of why it isn't logical that the time in the DR be the same as that of the US year round:
With Daylight Saving Time the Dominican Republic had been placed at -5h or 5 hours West of Greenwich i.e. the same as Eastern Standard Time (EST) in the US. On the 3rd of December 2000, when the Dominican Republic moved its clocks one hour ahead, it abandoned EST and returned to Atlantic Standard Time (AST), again becoming exactly four hours behind GMT.
The Tropical Latitudes are defined in relation to the angle at which the earth's axis is tilted to the plane of the ecliptic i.e. 23.5? - this means that the Tropics is that band around the earth, parallel to the equator, that lies between 23.5? North and South of the Equator. The length of day and night at the Equator remains the same throughout the year. The greatest variation in the length of day and night, throughout the year, is at the North and South poles where day or night can last for up to 6 months. Most of the continental US lies in latitudes where the annual variations in the length of day and night are large enough to justify the implementation of Daylight Saving Time.
Since the northern most point of the Dominican Republic is near Cabo Isabela (19? 55' N) and the southern most point is at the southern tip of Isla Beata (17? 33' N) the Dominican Republic is squarely within Tropical latitudes. There is some variation in the length of day and night between these latitudes throughout the year but it is rather minimal and does not justify the implementation of Daylight Saving Time.
