Residents of Seydisfjördur are tired of seeing the sun go behind the mountains by the time they get home from work in the summer. They have implored the government to take up daylight savings time again.
Daylight savings time was in effect in Iceland from 1917 to 1918 and again from 1939 to 1968. In 1968, day light savings were used for the last time, but then the clock was never set back after the summer. Since then Iceland has been one hour ahead of what should be its regular time zone. Morgunbladid reports.
If daylight savings were re-introduced, Iceland would have double daylight savings during the summer.
A bill on that matter has been proposed four times on Althingi, but never discussed.
Vilhjálmur Egilsson, former MP, is one of the eager supporters of double day light savings, or as he calls it, super-summertime. “I believe it would be natural to introduce daylight savings time in the summer. Then the sun would be at high noon around 14.30 in Reykjavík and when people are getting back from work there would still be many hours of sunlight left in the day,” he told Morgunbladid.
Thorsteinn Saemundsson, astronomer, disagrees on the matter and believes that double daylight savings would be a step back. “Our clock is already ahead of time. It was therefore it was never set back [in the fall of 1968] people wanted to have the advantages of a day light savings as well as fixed clock.”
The pressure group in Seydisfjördur, Samtök um sólríkara samfélag (Association for a Sunnier Society) held a meeting on Monday and decided to push the government to take up daylight savings. If not, they are considering taking up daylight savings for Seydisfjördur alone.
According to Icelandic laws it is forbidden to take up daylight savings, but the people of Seydisfjördur are willing to take that risk and see how or if the government will enforce that law.
