Should Daylight Savings Time be extended for weather reasons?

[Plato]

So Daylight Savings Time ends tomorrow morning. I know some people dislike the switches that come with DST and would prefer it to be done away with altogether. But given that we're going to keep it, doesn't it make sense to go further into April than it already does? The current rules seem to be based almost entirely on the sun, not really accounting for the fact that weather tends to be a lot nicer around the autumn equinox than the spring equinox.

April still has fairly nice weather in most of the country (and can be quite picturesque with autumn leaves). And with the possible exception of Invercargill (8:00am sunrise today), we would not have unusually late sunrises if kept on DST. (Certainly, Auckland could handle a much later DST switch, with a 7:30am sunrise today and 20C average high temperatures in April).

Consider how US daylight saving ends on the first Sunday in November (equivalent to May for us). Maybe we don't need to go that far, but somewhere around ANZAC Day would seem good.

[David]

Have mixed feelings about this topic... on one hand it's a bit sad to lose the evening light but I'm an early bird and it's totally dark when I get up and still dark when leaving for work the last several weeks now. The balance feels about right to me, ending the first Sunday in April.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I have always thought of the period between Labour WE and Easter WE be the period for DST as people would know in an instant when the DST period occurs.
As far as the weather goes, I don't think it would make much difference.
As far as I'm concerned now I'm retired, sunrise in the morning dosen't concern me but with the sun setting later in the day, I can further my activities rather than come inside becasue it is getting dark.
I did consider why have DST in winter instead of summer, as we can get that extra sunlight rather than it getting dark around 5pm.?

[Nev]

Been a while since this ol' chestnut popped up here…

Have mixed feelings about this topic... on one hand it's a bit sad to lose the evening light but I'm an early bird and it's totally dark when I get up and still dark when leaving for work the last several weeks now. The balance feels about right to me, ending the first Sunday in April.

My sentiments exactly!
Also bear in mind that a lot of people like tradies and their suppliers start work at 7am.

I have always thought of the period between Labour WE and Easter WE be the period for DST as people would know in an instant when the DST period occurs.

Labour Day is way too late IMHO, as that normally falls between 30 and 37 days after our spring equinox. And Easter Sunday can fall anytime within a five week period from March 22 to April 25 (i.e. the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the March equinox).

A brief history of our extended Daylight Saving Times since its more formal introduction in 1974:

1974 - From the first Sunday in November to the last Sunday in February.
1975 - From the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in March.
1989 - From the second Sunday in October to the third Sunday in March.
1990 - From the first Sunday in October to the third Sunday in March.
2007 - From the last Sunday in September to the first Sunday in April.

[Simon Culling]

We have the same arguments every year here in the UK. The clocks went forward last Sunday and will not go back again to GMT until the end of October. With New Zealand spanning a greater latitudinal distance than the UK, it is very hard to please everyone. There has been a case made for 'double' summer time in the UK by adding 2 hours on to give longer evenings - as it gets light as early as 4am in June and this is wasted daylight time to many. Not an easy circle to square.

[einzack]

It's a toughy, but personally, I was getting a bit tired of the darkness in the mornings recently. I'm more active in the mornings than in the evenings and it was still too dark to do anything meaningful without a headtorch at 7:30am, which to me is crazy for this time of year. Lighter at night is ok, but having it light until 10pm+ in the middle of summer is more trouble than it's worth with young kids, as just 1 example.

[RWood]

The current setup suits me and spouse as we both prefer evening light. Of course NZ clocks are really about 5 to 48 minutes past "true" solar time even without DST.... Paris will not have sunset till 9.58 at the summer solstice, and Brest in the west of France has its latest sunset at 10.23. Not to all tastes!

[Richard]

For a person who wakes at first light and cant sleep while its light i would up at 4.00 in the morning. Then also the summer evenings is when i get most work done thanks that extra hour. Love DST