Fernando de Noronha summer time?

Tue Nov 4 05:31:16 UTC 2003

Thanks for your detailed analysis.  Here's what I had drafted before I
got your letter; my comments below compare this draft to the sources
that you found.

# Fernando de Noronha (administratively part of PE)
Zone America/Noronha	-2:09:40 -	LMT	1914
			-2:00	Brazil	FN%sT	1990 Sep 17
			-2:00	-	FNT	1999 Sep 30
			-2:00	Brazil	FN%sT	2000 Oct 15
			-2:00	-	FNT	2001 Sep 13
			-2:00	Brazil	FN%sT	2002 Oct  1
			-2:00	-	FNT
# Other Atlantic islands have no permanent settlement.
# These include Trindade and Martin Vaz (administratively part of ES),
# Atol das Rocas (RN), and Penedos de Sao Pedro e Sao Paulo (PE).
# Fernando de Noronha was a separate territory from 1942-09-02 to 1989-01-01;
# it also included the Penedos.

At Mon, 3 Nov 2003 17:28:09 -0500, "Gwillim Law" <RLAW at nc.rr.com> writes:

> http://pcdsh01.on.br/
>
> ... According to the decrees, PE and RN both observed summer time
> every year that it was observed in Brazil up until 1990.  They
> resumed observing it in the summers of 1999-2002, except that they
> went off it early in the summer of 2000-2001, along with several
> other states.

This matches the draft entry above.

> http://pcdsh01.on.br/MapaHORVER03.htm
>
> The map on this page clearly shows that none of the oceanic islands observed
> summer time in 2003-2004, not even Trindade and Martin Vaz.

This also matches.

> http://pcdsh01.on.br/Fusbr.htm
> http://pcdsh01.on.br/Fusbrhv.htm
>
> Tables on these pages state that none of the oceanic islands observe summer
> time, except for FN, which is supposed to be in UTC-3 in the winter and
> UTC-2 in the summer.  This is probably a mistake

Yes, that can't be right.

> http://www.aneel.gov.br/arquivos/pdf/resumo2001.pdf
> http://www.aneel.gov.br/arquivos/pdf/periodos2001.pdf
> http://www.aneel.gov.br/arquivos/pdf/horadotados2001.pdf
> http://www.aneel.gov.br/area.cfm?id_area=65
>
> These pages are from the Brazilian National Electrical Energy Agency.  They
> show that FN and the oceanic islands don't observe summer time.  This
> probably refers to 2002-2003.

It looks to me like the first table (at least) was prepared after the
2000/2001 summer, but before the 2001/2002 summer.  The draft above
says that FN didn't observe summer time during most of 2000/2001, so
this would match.

> http://www2.uol.com.br/JC/_1999/2712/tu2312d.htm
>
> This article from the Recife "Jornal do Commercio" for December 23, 1999
> implies that FN was observing summer time that year.

This matches the draft.

> http://www.formosaonline.com.br/geonline/textos/geografia/cartografia03.htm
>
> This educational site says that FN and other oceanic islands do not observe
> summer time; no date is given.

HTTP says the page was last modified on 2001-06-06.  This matches the
draft entry, which says FN didn't observe summer time during most of
2000/2001.

> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fernando-de-noronha/message/41
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fernando-de-noronha/message/42

> The first message says that FN is a special case, and it follows PE
> time but has its own time zone....

This agrees with the draft.

> "Natal/FEN" probably means that the information applies both to
> Natal, the capital of RN state, and FN.

Other postings (e.g.,
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fernando-de-noronha/message/1>) seem to
use "NAT/FEN/NAT" to refer to round trips; so perhaps "Natal/FEN"
means only the departure in the Natal-to-FEN flight.  However, I
don't read Portuguese like you do....

> http://www.flying.scuba.nom.br/info_aspec_geog.htm
>
> This tourism site says that FN doesn't observe summer time; there is no clue
> as to its date.

HTTP says the page was last modified 2000-06-16.  This contradicts the
draft, which says that FN observed summer time in 1999/2000, and was
planned to observe it again in 2000/2001.  Too bad.  I suppose it's
possible that the DST part of this page is dated before 2000-09, when
FN was not observing summer time (according to the draft).

> http://www.pisa.tur.br/roteiro_novo/roteiros/noronha/nornha_8dias.htm
>
> This tourism site says that FN did not observe summer time in 2002-2003.

This matches the draft.

> http://www.jferreira.com.br/turismo/informacoes/dicas/005.htm
>
> This tourism site says that FN does not observe summer time.  No date is
> given.

HTTP gives a last-modified date of 2003-04-23.  This matches the draft.

> http://www.getaway.com.br/Diferen%C3%A7as.htm
>
> This tourism site says that FN did not observe summer time in 1999-2000, but
> PE did.

I couldn't visit this site, but it contradicts the draft.

> http://www.flytime.com.br/horario.htm
>
> This tourism site says that FN did not observe summer time in 2000-2001, but
> the other oceanic islands did.

This contradicts the draft.  Ouch!  And it looks fairly detailed and
checked-out.  (It also gives UTC offsets for Trindade, Martin Vaz,
Atol das Rocas, Penedos de Sao Paulo e Sao Pedro: UTC-2 in winter,
UTC-1 in winter.  This is the only such claim I've seen for these
islands.  However, I still haven't found evidence of permanent
inhabitants for these islands.)

> http://www.espaco-do-ceu.com.br/Hora%20de%20Ver%E3o.htm
>
> This astrology site has a table summarizing the decrees.

I suspect this was just derived from the decrees; I don't see any
suggestion of independent verification.

> www.radioescotismo.com.br/Fusos.htm
>
> This page, devoted to Brazilian radio scouts, says that FN did observe
> summer time and other oceanic islands did not.  It has a copyright date of
> 2001 and a "last modified" of August 26, 2002

This agrees with the draft, which has FN observing DST in 2001/2002.

> http://www.novomilenio.inf.br/santos/h0086.htm
>
> I think it must be a mistake.

Likewise.

> Stefan Johansson wrote on 1999-10-02 that he had a newspaper clipping from O
> Estado de S. Paulo of that date, regarding the new decree for 1999-2000.
> Without quoting from the article, he summarizes his conclusions in a table.
> On one row of the table, FN is shown as not observing summer time that year;
> on another row, PE (except FN) does observe it.

This disagrees with the draft.

All in all, the draft entry doesn't agree with all the data that you
found, but it matches quite a few of them....