2017 is Almost Here!

JavaScript (ES6), 107

As an anonymous method with no parameters

Note 1483228800000 is Date.UTC(2017,0)

_=>` _     __    __
  |   |  | |   |
  |_  |__| |   |
`.repeat((Math.abs(new Date-14832288e5)+36e5-1)/36e5)

Test This keeps updating every 1 minute, but you'll need a lot of patience to see the output change.

F=_=>`_     __    __
 |   |  | |   |
 |_  |__| |   |
`.repeat((Math.abs(new Date-14832288e5)+36e5-1)/36e5)

update=_=>O.textContent=F()

setInterval(update,60000)

update()
<pre id=O></pre>


Python 2 - 97 + 17 = 114 bytes

import time
print'_     __    __\n |   |  | |   |\n |_  |__| |   |\n'*int((abs(time.time()-1483228800)+3599)/3600)

Borrowed logic for ceiling from edc65's answer.

Python 3.5 - 116 bytes

import time,math
print('_     __    __\n |   |  | |   |\n |_  |__| |   |\n'*math.ceil(abs(time.time()/3600-412008)))

math.ceil returns an integer in 3.x whereas in 2.x it returns a float.

Thanks elpedro for saving 3 bytes.


Pyth - 71 68 bytes

*"_     __    __
 |   |  | |   |
 |_  |__| |   |
".Ea412008c.d0 3600

Uses the same logic used in my python 3.5 answer.

Try it here!