Parameter Timezone

Model name

parameter_timezone

Description

Snowflake uses America/Los Angeles as default timezone which can lead some strange issues. It’s not a problem if you use the same timezone (mostly UTC is suggested) or timezone_ltz datatypes, but with ntz you can be in trouble. :slight_smile:

SQL

SHOW PARAMETERS IN ACCOUNT;
select *
from
    table(result_scan(last_query_id()))
where True
    and parameter_value = parameter_default
    and parameter_key = 'TIMEZONE';

Reason to flag

Snowflake Docs

Specifies the time zone for the session.

Values: You can specify a time zone name or a link name from release 2021a of the IANA Time Zone Database (e.g. America/Los_Angeles, Europe/London, UTC, Etc/GMT, etc.).

Default: America/Los_Angeles

How to Remediate

Setting up UTC as the default timezone:

-- session level
show parameters like 'TIMEZONE';

key         value               default           
TIMEZONE    America/Los_Angeles America/Los_Angeles

-- same but account level
show parameters like 'TIMEZONE' in account;

-- alter to UTC timezone
ALTER ACCOUNT SET TIMEZONE = 'UTC';