Fall Back: One Afternoon for Alarms, Water, and the Car

The Extra Hour

In most of the United States, daylight saving time ends at 2:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, November 1, 2026. The clock returns to 1:00 a.m., and the day has an extra hour. NIST’s daylight saving time page states the 2026 span directly: daylight saving time runs from March 8 at 2 a.m. to November 1 at 2 a.m. Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Arizona do not observe it. The Navajo Indian Reservation, inside Arizona, does. If your clocks stay put, pick any weekend this month. The chores are the same.

This is a maintenance hour as heating season starts. Furnaces are coming on. Water filled in the spring has been sitting. A flashlight in a drawer may already be dead.

Phones usually change themselves. A wall clock, a stove, and an older alarm clock do not. NIST says some automatic clocks were built for the pre-2007 dates and can switch on the wrong day. Set those by hand, then do the checks below.

Smoke Alarms, Then Carbon Monoxide

Changing the clocks is the old reminder to deal with smoke-alarm batteries. NFPA’s page on clocks and batteries describes that habit and notes that NFPA did not create the “Change Your Clocks, Change Your Batteries” campaign. The rule on the page is still the one to follow.

A smoke alarm with a sealed 10-year battery is meant to last up to 10 years. If it chirps, replace the whole alarm. Any other battery needs replacing at least once a year, and right away if the alarm chirps. Use the battery listed on the back. NFPA says a different kind may not work properly. Press the test button on every alarm. Where the alarms go, and how to walk two ways out, is already in the Fire Prevention Week article. This hour is the test and the battery.

Carbon monoxide belongs on the same pass because the furnace is about to run for months. CDC’s carbon monoxide page, dated January 12, 2026, calls it an odorless, colorless gas that kills without warning. Each year, more than 400 Americans die from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning not linked to fires, more than 100,000 visit an emergency department, and more than 14,000 are hospitalized. The same page says the gas claims hundreds of lives a year and makes thousands more ill. Common symptoms are headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion, often described as flu-like. People who are asleep can die before they notice.

CDC’s steps match this weekend. Put a battery-operated detector, or one with a battery backup, near every sleeping area. Check those batteries each spring and fall, when the clocks change. Replace the detector on the manufacturer’s schedule, or every 5 years. Have the heating system, water heater, and any other gas, oil, or coal-burning appliance serviced by a qualified technician every year. Never heat the house with a gas oven. Heat and generators are covered in the winter-storm article. This pass is the detector and a furnace appointment if this season’s service is still undone.

If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone into fresh air and call for help.

Water on a Six-Month Clock

CDC’s emergency-water page, dated June 27, 2025, says to store at least 1 gallon of water per person per day for 3 days, and to try for 2 weeks if you can. Store more for someone who is pregnant or sick, for pets, and in a hot climate. Unopened commercially bottled water is the safest stored supply. Read the date on the bottle.

Water you poured into your own containers is on a shorter clock. Replace it every 6 months. Label the container “drinking water” and write the storage date. Keep it cool, about 50°F to 70°F, out of direct sunlight, and away from gasoline and pesticides. Use a food-grade container. Do not reuse a jug that held bleach, pesticides, or anything else toxic.

The fall time change sits about six months after the spring one, so it is a natural day to empty what you filled last March or April. Wash the container with soap and rinse it. Sanitize with 1 teaspoon of unscented household bleach in 1 quart of water. The label should say 5% to 9% sodium hypochlorite. Cover, shake so the solution touches every inside surface, wait at least 30 seconds, pour it out, and let the container air-dry. Fill it with clean water, cap it, and write today’s date.

If the water smells off, replace it. Three people for three days is nine gallons. That is the floor.

The Shelf You Already Have

Pull cans and dry mixes into the light. Move older packages to the front. Cook two ordinary meals this month from what is already there, then buy replacements on the next grocery trip and put them behind what remains.

If a package is damaged, or the food smells or looks wrong, do not serve it. The date on the package, and the condition of the container, are what you can check. This article will not assign a shelf life in years. Write today’s date on a card and leave it with the food.

Flashlights, a Radio, and the Trunk

Take out every flashlight you would grab: the kitchen drawer, the bedroom, a go-bag, and the car. Turn each one on. Replace weak batteries, and keep a few of the sizes those lights use. Test a battery radio or a hand-crank radio the same way. Batteries that sat in a hot car or a damp basement all summer may already be tired. An unopened package is not proof.

Open the car kit in the driveway. Look for drinking water, a snack someone will eat, a blanket or a warm layer, and a flashlight that works. Pour out water that baked all summer and put in a fresh bottle. Refill a first-aid pouch that is down to empty wrappers. Any medicine in the kit should be medicine the driver still takes, with a date that is still good. Replace what the summer ruined.

Write Down What You Touched

Prep Roadmap’s first phase is a fixed checklist called 72-Hour Basics: water at one gallon per person per day for three days, 72 hours of ready-to-eat food, a first-aid kit, light and batteries, a paper contact plan, document copies, and cash. This hour revisits water, food, and light. Mark a task when the work is done. The checklist does not record which jug you refilled.

The supply tracker logs what you stored and compares calories and water with a number of days. It does not flag expiration dates. Write the date on the jug, and cook the older food first. On the website, a free account can log 10 items. A 7-day trial unlocks the full tracker.

Four family drills match this afternoon. Water Storage Rotation covers leaks, cloudy water, draining, cleaning, and refilling. Long-Term Food Storage Test is the shelf check for dates and damage. Battery Inventory & Testing is the flashlight and radio pass. Vehicle Emergency Kit is the bin in the trunk. The drill is the list. You still open the jug, the alarm, and the trunk.

On the website, the roadmap is free. Family drills open with the 7-day trial. The iPhone app currently includes every tool.

“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” — Proverbs 6:6-8

November 1 is one Sunday. Test the alarms, empty one old water jug, turn on the flashlight, and look in the car. The extra hour is enough for that.