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Yes! Its tonight that the clocks go back an hour. Good news if you are out partying as in most places you will get the extra hour before your favorite bar closes. Also good for that extra hour in bed. This is my preferred time change for obvious reason although it will be dark by 6.30 pm in Lanzarote tomorrow.

Its the sign that the winter months are now upon us. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT/UTC) is maintained in Lanzarote during the winter, which is the same as the UK, while mainland Spain and many other European countries are 1 hour ahead of the Canaries

Spain is in western Europe, the same as Portugal, the United Kingdom and France, one hour behind central Europe. But in 1942, at the height of World War II, Germany set occupied France’s clocks back an hour to Berlin time, while Britain, Portugal and Spain followed suit, albeit for different reasons: the first to take advantage of the long summer evenings to increase productivity, particularly on farms, as well as to avoid confusion with its allies in Europe; while Spain’s decision was seemingly a show of loyalty to Hitler and recognition that Germany was now the new master of the continent.

The exception to Spain’s time zone rule is the Canary Islands, which operates on GMT. The regional government of the Atlantic archipelago is unhappy at the idea of losing its special status of being an hour behind the rest of the country. News reports have to add „one hour less in the Canary Islands“ every time the time is announced. „If the time difference were to disappear, we would lose our constant presence in the Spanish media, with the concomitant impact on our branding. What is the value, in advertising terms, of being mentioned in each time check?“ the head of the Canaries regional government demanded to know last week in the run-up to the parliamentary commission’s report. But maybe there is a simple solution at hand: Chinchilla says that if Spain were to move back an hour, the Canaries could simply follow suit. „They would remain an hour behind us, because in reality, the Canaries are in a different time zone to GMT.“