The shortest weekend of the year has arrived... Daylight Saving Time begins on Sunday. The clocks change from 1:59 a.m. to 3 a.m. overnight Saturday. We'll lose an hour of daylight in the morning (and an hour of sleep), but we gain an hour of daylight in the evening. For many people, it's a small price to pay for more hours of daylight to enjoy after work. However, some people prefer brighter mornings. Nearly everyone hates the sudden shift every year and would rather us stay in either Daylight Saving Time all year long or keep to Standard Time. So, what would the tri-state's daylight look like if we didn't switch our clocks.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) happens on the second Sunday of March every year in the United States and ends the first week of November. Daylight Saving Time lasts nearly twice as long as Standard Time, but it wasn't always this way.

For most of the 1900s, Daylight Saving Time was not consistently observed in the United States. Daylight Saving Time started in 1918 during World War I, but it was unpopular because farmers had less time in the morning to harvest their crops and bring them to market. That's why 1 year later it became an option to observe a "local Daylight Saving Time." New York City began observing Daylight Saving Time, while rural areas outside of the city did not switch clocks back.

Daylight Saving Time became a nationwide standard again during World War II from 1942 to 1945. It was called "War Time" to conserve fuel. After the war ended, some parts of the country kept Daylight Saving Time and other's didn't.

With a few state exceptions, Daylight Saving Time became a nationwide standard in 1967, but it occurred much later in the year than it does today. Daylight Saving Time started the last Sunday in April until 1986. From 1986 to 2007, Daylight Saving Time was moved to the first Sunday in April.

The Energy Conservation Policy of 2005 changed Daylight Saving time to start the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. This change took place in 2007 as a way to save energy. The energy savings were minor, but a longer time in Daylight Saving proved to have a positive impact on the economy and was particularly beneficial on Halloween, giving kids an extra hour to safely trick-or-treat.

Are you a fan of brighter evenings? You'd probably support a year-round Daylight Saving Time. It's happened before, but it was not a popular change. In 1974, Richard Nixon enacted the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act, to conserve energy during the oil crisis. The majority of people were in favor of the idea at first, but the darker morning commutes in the winter eroded public support, and Standard Time was brought back the following year.

The problem for many people with Standard Time is our dark evenings during the winter. Right now, for example, Long Island has the latest winter sunrise at 7:23 a.m. in early November, but the earliest sunset is 4:25 p.m. in early December. If we observed Daylight Saving all year long, the latest winter sunrise on the island would be 8:23 a.m., but the sunset would happen no later then 5:25 p.m.

The United States hasn't observed consistent Standard Time since the early 1900s. Back then, early morning daylight was ideal for farmers that needed to harvest their crops before shops opened up. That idea has become obsolete with today's advances. Early morning sunrises have become less favorable than brighter evenings.

If we kept Standard Time all year long, the sun would rise very early in the summertime. During the longest days of the year, the sunrise would be about 4:20 a.m. and the sun would set no later than about 7:30 p.m. Dawn would start at around 3:47 a.m., which is considered the middle of the night for most people.

There's a recent conversation to bring Standard Time back all year long. Whether the country keeps the status quo or makes changes, it's a guarantee some communities will be unhappy. Sunrise and sunset times vary across the country, but the North East has one of the earliest summer sunrises so Standard Time all year long would be particularly noticeable for us.