How do I make MySQL's NOW() and CURDATE() functions use UTC?

Question

I want to make it so calls to NOW() and CURDATE() in MySQL queries return the date in UTC. How do I make this happen without going through and changing all queries that use

Answer 1

If changing the timezone on your running production servers or updating a key configuration setting and restarting mysql seems unrealistic and/or overkill, try this:

CONVERT_TZ(NOW(), 'US/Pacific', 'UTC')

Where US/Pacific is the timezone your NOW() call is returning the time in.