Data centers raise nearby temperatures by up to 4 degrees in Phoenix
First field measurements show data centers in Phoenix, Arizona, heat surrounding neighborhoods by up to 2.2°C, with average increases of 0.7–0.9°C detectable up to 500 meters away. A single 36 MW facility rejects heat equivalent to 40,000 households, while a 169 MW campus equals 180,000 households. With U.S. data center capacity set to double by 2030, waste heat emerges as a previously undocumented urban thermal hazard.
Despite this extraordinary thermal footprint, the localized air temperature impacts of data center waste heat on surrounding communities have never been directly measured or reported in the peer-reviewed literature.