diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 6c738f97b..8dcf8ac76 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1572,4 +1572,5 @@
 * Fix issue where dashboard location might conflict with existing app location
 * Ad graphite to services
 * Add labels and tags to apps
+* Ensure MySQL is storing data/time in UTC
 
diff --git a/baseimage/initializeBaseUbuntuImage.sh b/baseimage/initializeBaseUbuntuImage.sh
index a2d2a0bc0..2c05e71a2 100755
--- a/baseimage/initializeBaseUbuntuImage.sh
+++ b/baseimage/initializeBaseUbuntuImage.sh
@@ -114,6 +114,7 @@ fi
 echo "==> Configuring host"
 sed -e 's/^#NTP=/NTP=0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 3.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org/' -i /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf
 timedatectl set-ntp 1
+# mysql follows the system timezone
 timedatectl set-timezone UTC
 
 # Disable bind for good measure (on online.net, kimsufi servers these are pre-installed and conflicts with unbound)
diff --git a/setup/start/mysql.cnf b/setup/start/mysql.cnf
index 8339fa901..cba076143 100644
--- a/setup/start/mysql.cnf
+++ b/setup/start/mysql.cnf
@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ max_allowed_packet=32M
 character-set-server = utf8mb4
 collation-server = utf8mb4_unicode_ci
 
+# set timezone to UTC
+default_time_zone='+00:00'
+
 [mysqldump]
 quick
 quote-names
diff --git a/src/database.js b/src/database.js
index 611a1b3ca..75a87b4ac 100644
--- a/src/database.js
+++ b/src/database.js
@@ -36,7 +36,8 @@ function initialize(callback) {
         port: config.database().port,
         database: config.database().name,
         multipleStatements: false,
-        ssl: false
+        ssl: false,
+        timezone: 'Z' // mysql follows the SYSTEM timezone. on Cloudron, this is UTC
     });
 
     gConnectionPool.on('connection', function (connection) {