Bad Weather Makes for a Long Day
Changes in mass distribution affect the earth’s rotation rate. A little.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo., occasionally adds a “leap second” to the atomic clocks used to standardize time. The last such update took place on January 1, 2006.
Arrg. And so do all of the timing labs around the world. The determination of whether or not to add (or possibly subtract) a leap second is the responsibility of the the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service.
these people make synchronizing my watch quite difficult.