Those windowless data fortresses rising across metro Phoenix are not just gulping electricity. Arizona State University researchers say the heat they dump into the air is drifting into nearby neighborhoods and nudging local temperatures up by several degrees, raising public health questions just as state officials and utilities race to keep up with a fast-growing data center boom.
Field measurements show persistent plumes
David Sailor, director of ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, told reporters his team repeatedly picked up a downwind “heat plume” from large facilities and logged temperature differences on the order of several degrees Fahrenheit between nearby blocks. In one run, the area closest to a center averaged about…..