Returns the date-time value of the current moment. The time returned is based on UTC, which is only converted to your selected time zone when used in another function (such as date_get_day, date_datetime_string, etc.).
date_current_datetime();
myhour = date_get_hour(date_current_datetime());
myday = date_get_day(date_current_datetime());
This would set the local variable myhour to the hour of the current time, and myday to the day of the current date. Even though date_current_time() returns time in UTC, what you get from the date_get_hour and date_get_day functions is converted to the local time by default (unless changed in date_set_timezone).