[tz] 2014 DST changes in Egypt, again

Paul Eggert eggert at cs.ucla.edu
Wed Jun 4 16:35:27 UTC 2014


Thanks for the heads-up.  This most likely affects 2015 and later, too; 
I've tried to come up with a pattern.  Attached is a proposed patch, 
which I've pushed into the experimental repository.  Please give it a 
try.  We'll need another stable release soon.
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From 5e27c6a8eabb12d59b969e3631981b6228bd1fbb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu>
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2014 09:33:15 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Egypt's Ramadan-based transitions expand to
 Thursday-to-Thursday 24:00.

* africa (Egypt): 2014 transitions are June 26 and July 31 at 24:00.
(Thanks to Imed Chihi.)  Guess a similar pattern for future years,
namely, DST is not observed in Ramadan, nor in the days following the
last Thursday before Ramadan, nor in the days preceding the first
Friday after Ramadan.
* NEWS: Document this.
---
 NEWS   |  6 +++++
 africa | 85 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------
 2 files changed, 65 insertions(+), 26 deletions(-)

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index dd0eee5..d16bd3b 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ News for the tz database
 
 Unreleased, experimental changes
 
+  Changes affecting near-future time stamps
+
+    Egypt's 2014 Ramadan-based transitions are June 25 and July 31 at 24:00.
+    (Thanks to Imed Chihi.)  Guess that transitions in future years
+    will follow a similar pattern.
+
   Changes affecting past time stamps
 
     The abbreviation "MSM" (Moscow Midsummer Time) is now used instead of
diff --git a/africa b/africa
index 83bff2e..628c086 100644
--- a/africa
+++ b/africa
@@ -342,46 +342,79 @@ Rule	Egypt	2007	only	-	Sep	Thu>=1	23:00s	0	-
 # From Gunther Vermier (2015-05-13):
 # our Egypt office confirms that the change will be at 15 May "midnight" (24:00)
 
-# From Paul Eggert (2014-05-13):
+# From Imed Chihi (2014-06-04):
+# We have finally "located" a precise official reference about the DST changes
+# in Egypt.  The Ministers Cabinet decision is explained at
+# http://www.cabinet.gov.eg/Media/CabinetMeetingsDetails.aspx?id=347 ...
+# [T]his (Arabic) site is not accessible outside Egypt, but the page ...
+# translates into: "With regard to daylight saving time, it is scheduled to
+# take effect at exactly twelve o'clock this evening, Thursday, 15 MAY 2014,
+# to be suspended by twelve o'clock on the evening of Thursday, 26 JUN 2014,
+# and re-established again at the end of the month of Ramadan, at twelve
+# o'clock on the evening of Thursday, 31 JUL 2014."  This statement has been
+# reproduced by other (more accessible) sites[, e.g.,]...
+# http://elgornal.net/news/news.aspx?id=4699258
+
+# From Paul Eggert (2014-06-04):
 # Sarah El Deeb and Lee Keath of AP report that the Egyptian government says
 # the change is because of blackouts in Cairo, even though Ahram Online (cited
-# above) says DST had no affect on electricity consumption.  The AP story says
-# DST will not be observed during Ramadan.  There is no information about when
-# DST will end.  See:
+# above) says DST had no affect on electricity consumption.  There is
+
+# no information about when DST will end this fall.  See:
 # http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/el-sissi-pushes-egyptians-line-23614833
 #
 # For now, guess that later transitions will use 2010's rules, and that
 # Egypt will agree with Morocco (see below) about the date Ramadan starts and
-# ends, though (unlike Morocco) it will switch at 00:00 standard time.  In
-# Egypt the spring-forward transitions are removed for 2020-2022, when the
-# guessed spring-forward date falls during the estimated Ramadan, and all
-# transitions removed for 2023-2038, where the estimated Ramadan falls entirely
-# outside the guessed daylight-saving time.  Ramadan intrudes on the guessed
-# DST starting in 2039, but that's beyond our somewhat-arbitrary cutoff.
-
+# ends, though (unlike Morocco) it will switch at 24:00 the last Thursday before
+# Ramadan, and at 00:00 the first Friday after Ramadan.
+# To estimate what the Egyptian government will do in future years,
+# transition dates for 2015 through 2037 were determined by running
+# the following program under GNU Emacs 24.3, with the results integrated
+# by hand into the table below.  Ramadan again intrudes on the guessed
+# DST starting in 2038, but that's beyond our somewhat-arbitrary cutoff.
+# (let ((islamic-year 1436))
+#   (while (< islamic-year 1460)
+#     (let ((a (calendar-islamic-to-absolute (list 9 1 islamic-year)))
+#           (b (calendar-islamic-to-absolute (list 10 1 islamic-year)))
+#           (friday 5))
+#       (while (/= friday (mod a 7))
+#         (setq a (1- a)))
+#       (while (/= friday (mod b 7))
+#         (setq b (1+ b)))
+#       (setq a (1- a))
+#       (setq b (1- b))
+#       (setq a (calendar-gregorian-from-absolute a))
+#       (setq b (calendar-gregorian-from-absolute b))
+#       (insert
+#        (format
+#         (concat "Rule\tEgypt\t%d\tonly\t-\t%s\t%2d\t24:00\t0\t-\n"
+#                 "Rule\tEgypt\t%d\tonly\t-\t%s\t%2d\t24:00\t1:00\tS\n")
+#         (car (cdr (cdr a))) (calendar-month-name (car a) t) (car (cdr a))
+#         (car (cdr (cdr b))) (calendar-month-name (car b) t) (car (cdr b)))))
+#     (setq islamic-year (+ 1 islamic-year))))
 Rule	Egypt	2008	only	-	Aug	lastThu	23:00s	0	-
 Rule	Egypt	2009	only	-	Aug	20	23:00s	0	-
 Rule	Egypt	2010	only	-	Aug	11	0:00	0	-
 Rule	Egypt	2010	only	-	Sep	10	0:00	1:00	S
 Rule	Egypt	2010	only	-	Sep	lastThu	23:00s	0	-
 Rule	Egypt	2014	only	-	May	15	24:00	1:00	S
-Rule	Egypt	2014	only	-	Jun	29	 0:00s	0	-
-Rule	Egypt	2014	only	-	Jul	29	 0:00s	1:00	S
+Rule	Egypt	2014	only	-	Jun	26	24:00	0	-
+Rule	Egypt	2014	only	-	Jul	31	24:00	1:00	S
 Rule	Egypt	2014	max	-	Sep	lastThu	23:00s	0	-
 Rule	Egypt	2015	2019	-	Apr	lastFri	 0:00s	1:00	S
-Rule	Egypt	2015	only	-	Jun	18	 0:00s	0	-
-Rule	Egypt	2015	only	-	Jul	18	 0:00s	1:00	S
-Rule	Egypt	2016	only	-	Jun	 7	 0:00s	0	-
-Rule	Egypt	2016	only	-	Jul	 7	 0:00s	1:00	S
-Rule	Egypt	2017	only	-	May	27	 0:00s	0	-
-Rule	Egypt	2017	only	-	Jun	26	 0:00s	1:00	S
-Rule	Egypt	2018	only	-	May	16	 0:00s	0	-
-Rule	Egypt	2018	only	-	Jun	15	 0:00s	1:00	S
-Rule	Egypt	2019	only	-	May	 6	 0:00s	0	-
-Rule	Egypt	2019	only	-	Jun	 5	 0:00s	1:00	S
-Rule	Egypt	2020	only	-	May	24	 0:00s	1:00	S
-Rule	Egypt	2021	only	-	May	13	 0:00s	1:00	S
-Rule	Egypt	2022	only	-	May	 3	 0:00s	1:00	S
+Rule	Egypt	2015	only	-	Jun	11	24:00	0	-
+Rule	Egypt	2015	only	-	Jul	23	24:00	1:00	S
+Rule	Egypt	2016	only	-	Jun	 2	24:00	0	-
+Rule	Egypt	2016	only	-	Jul	 7	24:00	1:00	S
+Rule	Egypt	2017	only	-	May	25	24:00	0	-
+Rule	Egypt	2017	only	-	Jun	29	24:00	1:00	S
+Rule	Egypt	2018	only	-	May	10	24:00	0	-
+Rule	Egypt	2018	only	-	Jun	14	24:00	1:00	S
+Rule	Egypt	2019	only	-	May	 2	24:00	0	-
+Rule	Egypt	2019	only	-	Jun	 6	24:00	1:00	S
+Rule	Egypt	2020	only	-	May	28	24:00	1:00	S
+Rule	Egypt	2021	only	-	May	13	24:00	1:00	S
+Rule	Egypt	2022	only	-	May	 5	24:00	1:00	S
 Rule	Egypt	2023	max	-	Apr	lastFri	 0:00s	1:00	S
 
 # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
-- 
1.9.1


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