The Texas House of Representatives approved a joint resolution April 23 to allow Texas voters to choose whether they would like to permanently live under Daylight Saving Time or Standard Time.
The question isn't on the November ballot just yet, it first must get through a Senate committee and a vote before being sent to the Secretary of State for inclusion in this fall's uniform election.
But, here's what you'll have to consider.
During Daylight Saving Time, we turn the clocks forward an hour in March so that spring and summer daylight extends more into the evening and we turn them back to Standard Time in November so that sunrise is a little earlier in the morning.
Standard Time, from November to March, is the time when DST is not in use.
If we choose to live in a Texas where we observe DST forever and always, then in November we will not turn the clocks back to Standard Time. That means on Dec. 21, the shortest day of the year for daylight hours, when the sunrise generally occurs at about 7:25 a.m., it wouldn't happen until about 8:25 a.m. That evening, sunset would normally occur at about 5:25 p.m. but now wouldn't happen until 6:25 p.m.
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Should we choose to forever live in Standard Time, we'd never again move the clocks forward in the spring. That means on June 21, the longest day of the year for daylight hours, sunrise would take place at 5:19 a.m. instead of the "normal" 6:19 a.m. Sunset on that day would occur at about 7:38 p.m. instead of 8:38 p.m.
The choice may be up to Texans on Nov. 5 -- do you want to live forever in Standard Time or Daylight Saving Time. The decision would come two days after we fall back on Nov. 3, perhaps for the last and final time.
How about them Cowboys? If they play on Sunday night during Daylight Saving Time, after November, they will kick off at 8:30 p.m. On Standard Time, kickoff would be the same it is now after November, but in September and October fans are looking at a 6:30 p.m. kickoff. Sunday mornings, a noon kickoff would move to 11 a.m. in September and October, if we remain on Standard Time. If we move to Daylight Saving Time all year, in November and December, that noon kickoff would be at 1 p.m.
Your Prime Time viewing could change if the clocks don't. After November, Prime Time still starts at 7 p.m. on Standard Time, but it would start at 8 p.m. if we moved to Daylight Saving.
Texans are not the only ones to consider such a deviation in timekeeping. The state of Arizona has not observed Daylight Saving Time since 1944 and on Tuesday legislators in Tennessee approved a similar proposal to keep the state on DST year-round.
NBC 5 Meteorologist Brian James and political reporter Julie Fine contributed to this report.
