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Data centers raise nearby temperatures by up to 4 degrees in Phoenix
(asmedigitalcollection.asme.org)
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this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2026
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I really appreciate that we all collectively decided, without talking about it, that this would be posted in every post that mentions Phoenix in any capacity
Every story about Phoenix is essentially about how it shouldn't exist so it's always relevant.
That was basically my reaction to visiting Phoenix...in October.
Stayed in Scottsdale for work one summer and that was horrible, but the mist along the sidewalks made it somewhat tolerable, but the rich assholes everywhere kept the vibe ruined
Just from an engineering perspective, is there a dumber place than Phoenix to build a data center? I guess the cost-saving perspective always wins out.
Elon Musk keeps flogging the idea of putting datacenters in orbit, where you're surrounded by hard vacuum and the only way you're getting rid of heat is via radiation.
I don't know about the viability of Phoenix, but I will say that space is probably about the worst possible place to put sensitive hardware that's heat-constrained.
Presumably he intends to mash the bodies of the poor against it in a continual stream of poverty slurry
Land, taxes, and energy are cheap there.
An arid place like Phoenix is useful for increasing the efficiency of evaporative cooling, which many data centres use.
evaporative cooling
Ah yes, that famously water-conserving cooling method. Remind me again where Phoenix gets its water supply?
See, you're not thinking like a tech CEO. What we call "an egregious blight on the climate", they call "externalities" — that is, someone else's problem.
Water shortages haven't stopped data centres from being built in countless other places. Meanwhile, consumers are stuck facing the consequences of such foolish construction, in the form of higher bills and in some places, temporary water shutoffs to manage demand
If you believe Danny Seiden, President and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, we got plenty of water for growth, almost infinite growth, and businesses will somehow magically solve our problems by their "innovation". First interview in the video link. Fuckin asshat.
https://azpbs.org/horizon/2026/08/growth-in-arizona-and-impact-of-colorado-river-water-cuts/
But its a dry heat!
Fahrenheit, specifically
Five traverses at four facilities in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area, ranging from a 36 MW single-building data center in Mesa to a 169 MW colocation campus in Chandler, reveal downwind air temperature warming as high as 2.2 °C, with average downwind air temperatures 0.7–0.9 °C warmer than corresponding upwind areas.
We should shut down those data centers and make their operators do climate remediation work.
That's fine, it's not like Arizona is a desert or anything
Not like 800 people died of heat stroke in Phoenix and Tucson this year already.
The house market is boomin' !
The last news article I read about Arizona heat was about how tripping onto asphalt is a major cause of second degree burns.
Probably the most on the nose example of that German idiom, "the devil shits on the biggest pile".