Syria’s Daylight Saving Starts on March 27, 2009

Syria will start daylight saving time at midnight (00:00) between Thursday, March 26, and Friday, March 27, in 2009. The Presidency of the Council of Ministers recently issued a communiqué to confirm this arrangement, also known as “summer time”, which will see the clocks move one hour forward.

Many Syrian towns and cities, including Tartus (pictured above) will soon move their clocks one hour ahead to observe daylight saving time.

©iStockphoto.com/Olga Kolos

2009 Daylight Saving Schedule

Syria will observe Eastern European Summer Time (EEST), which is three hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), or UTC +3 hours, during the 2009 daylight saving schedule. The 2009 daylight saving arrangement is a few days earlier than the 2008 daylight saving schedule, which started at midnight (00:00) between April 3 and April 4, 2008.

Syria observes daylight saving time to save energy during country’s summer months. The Ministry of Electricity had suggested daylight saving time in Syria to begin on the above-mentioned dates for 2009. Interestingly, the ministry also discussed at a recent Cabinet meeting a memo on the expected demand for energy in 2009 and upcoming years.

The daylight saving arrangement is expected to end at midnight (00:00) between the Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1, when the clocks will move back by one hour to 11pm (or 23:00) on Saturday, October 31. However, the end date has not yet been confirmed.

Time Zone

Syria is on Eastern European Time (EET), which is UTC +2 hours, during the non-daylight saving schedule. The nation moves the hour forward by one hour to EEST (UTC +3 hours), when it observes daylight saving time.

Dates of Daylight Saving Time 1983–2009

These are the dates Daylight Saving Time started and ended in Syria since 1983.