Daylight saving time in Brazil

Brazil observed daylight saving time (DST) (called horário de verão – "summer time" – in Portuguese) in the years of 1931–1933, 1949–1953, 1963–1968 and 1985–2019. Initially it applied to the whole country, but from 1988 it applied only to part of the country, usually the southern regions, where DST is more useful due to a larger seasonal variation in daylight duration.[1]

The most recent DST rule specified advancing the time by one hour during the period from 00:00 on the first Sunday in November to 00:00 on the third Sunday in February (postponed by one week if the latter fell on carnival), applicable only to the South, Southeast and Central-West regions. Brazil abolished DST in 2019.[1]

List of DST observances
yearDST startDST endareas observing DST
1931–19323 October 19311 April 1932all of Brazil
1932–19333 October 19321 April 1933all of Brazil
1949–19501 December 194916 April 1950all of Brazil
1950–19511 December 19501 April 1951all of Brazil
1951–19521 December 19511 April 1952all of Brazil
1952–19531 December 19521 March 1953all of Brazil
1963–196423 October 19631 March 1964Southeast[lower-alpha 1]
9 December 1963all of Brazil
1964–196531 January 19651 April 1965all of Brazil
1965–19661 December 19651 March 1966all of Brazil
1966–19671 November 19661 March 1967all of Brazil
1967–19681 November 19671 March 1968all of Brazil
1985–19862 November 198515 March 1986all of Brazil
1986–198725 October 198614 February 1987all of Brazil
1987–198825 October 19877 February 1988all of Brazil
1988–198916 October 198829 January 1989SouthSoutheastCentral-WestNortheastTO
1989–199015 October 198911 February 1990SouthSoutheastCentral-WestNortheastTO
1990–199121 October 199017 February 1991SouthSoutheastCentral-WestBA
1991–199220 October 19919 February 1992SouthSoutheastCentral-WestBA
1992–199325 October 199231 January 1993SouthSoutheastCentral-WestBA
1993–199417 October 199320 February 1994SouthSoutheastCentral-WestBAAM
1994–199516 October 199419 February 1995SouthSoutheastCentral-WestBA
1995–199615 October 199511 February 1996SouthSoutheastCentral-WestBASEALTO
1996–19976 October 199616 February 1997SouthSoutheastCentral-WestBATO
1997–19986 October 19971 March 1998SouthSoutheastCentral-WestBATO
1998–199911 October 199821 February 1998SouthSoutheastCentral-WestBATO
1999–20003 October 199927 February 2000SouthSoutheastCentral-WestNortheastTORR
2000–20018 October 200015 October 2000SouthSoutheastCentral-WestNortheastTORR
22 October 2000BASEALPBRNCEPIMA
18 February 2001
2001–200214 October 200117 February 2002SouthSoutheastCentral-WestNortheastTO
2002–20033 November 200216 February 2003SouthSoutheastCentral-WestBATO
2003–200419 October 200315 February 2004SouthSoutheastDFGOMS
2004–20052 November 200420 February 2005SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2005–200616 October 200519 February 2006SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2006–20075 November 200625 February 2007SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2007–200814 October 200717 February 2008SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2008–200919 October 200815 February 2009SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2009–201018 October 200921 February 2010SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2010–201117 October 201020 February 2011SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2011–201216 October 201126 February 2012SouthSoutheastCentral-WestBA
2012–201321 October 201217 February 2013SouthSoutheastCentral-WestTO
2013–201420 October 201316 February 2014SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2014–201519 October 201422 February 2015SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2015–201618 October 201521 February 2016SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2016–201716 October 201619 February 2017SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2017–201815 October 201718 February 2018SouthSoutheastCentral-West
2018–20194 November 201817 February 2019SouthSoutheastCentral-West
states and federal districtRSSCPRSPRJESMGDFGOMSMTBASEALPEPBRNCEPIMATOPAAPAMRRROAC
regionsSouthSoutheastCentral-WestNortheastNorth

Starting and ending dates

DST starting and ending dates were variable and determined by decree, often set for only one year at a time. Until 1968, the starting date was usually the first day of November or December, and the ending date was usually the first day of March or April, without regard to the day of the week. In 1985–1987 the dates were Saturdays, and from 1987 they were usually Sundays, typically from October to February.[1]

The dates were sometimes adjusted to avoid conflicts with certain events. In 1997, the DST starting date was set to a Monday due to the Pope's mass on Sunday during his visit to Brazil.[2] In 2002, 2004 and 2006, the starting date was postponed to the first Sunday or holiday in November due to elections in October and technical difficulties in adjusting the internal clocks of electronic voting machines.[3][4][5] In 2007, the DST ending date was postponed to the Sunday after carnival due to the expected economic benefits of observing DST during that holiday.[6]

In 2008, a decree finally fixed the DST schedule for future years, starting on the third Sunday in October and ending on the third Sunday in February, with an exception for postponing the ending date to the following Sunday if the date would otherwise fall on carnival, which occurred in 2012 and 2015.[1][7]

In 2018, the starting date was changed to the first Sunday in November to avoid interfering with elections in October. This time there was no technical difficulty, but a desire to shorten the difference in poll closing times between regions with and without DST.[8] Although it was a permanent change to the DST schedule, it was only observed that year as Brazil abolished DST altogether in 2019.[1]

Time changes were almost always done at midnight. The time was advanced from 00:00 to 01:00 on the DST starting date and reduced from 00:00 on the ending date to 23:00 of the previous day. Exceptions were the first DST starting time in 1931 (11:00) and the ending times in 1950 and 1966 (01:00).[1]

Regional application
Historical observance of daylight saving time in Brazil by state (lighter shades mean more years)

Until 1988, in every year that DST was observed it applied to whole country. In 1963 the Southeast region[lower-alpha 1] started DST earlier than the rest of the country.[1]

From 1988, DST was typically limited to the South, Southeast and Central-West regions, and was occasionally extended to some other states such as Bahia and Tocantins.[1] In 2000, DST was extended to all states in the Northeast region but was quickly canceled in most of them due to strong local opposition.[9]

  1. States existing at that time which would correspond to the Southeast region defined in 1970.

References
  1. "Decrees on daylight saving time in Brazil" (in Portuguese). National Observatory of Brazil. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
  2. Daylight saving time ends 15 February, Folha de S.Paulo, 27 August 1997. (in Portuguese)
  3. Electoral calendar, Folha de S.Paulo, 17 September 2002. (in Portuguese)
  4. Daylight saving time starts on the 2nd of November, Diário do Nordeste, 5 October 2004. (in Portuguese)
  5. Elections postpone daylight saving time to November, Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, 1 October 2006. (in Portuguese)
  6. Daylight saving time starts at midnight of this Saturday, Syndicate of Retail Commerce of Fuels, Lubricants and Convenience Stores in the State of Rio de Janeiro, 3 November 2006. (in Portuguese)
  7. Brazil confirms daylight saving from 2008 onwards, Time and Date, 29 August 2008.
  8. Elections change the start of daylight saving time, Agência Brasil, 30 September 2018. (in Portuguese)
  9. Decree removes the Northeast, except Bahia, from daylight saving time, Folha de S.Paulo, 17 October 2000. (in Portuguese)

See also
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