A massive data center hub is likely heating up a town outside London

Slough, England — Residents of the small industrial town of Slough, just west of London, told CBS News the soaring temperatures have been difficult to bear this year as Britain records its hottest summer ever. But emerging research suggests Slough may have had it particularly rough, as it sits next to the second largest data center hub on the planet. "Slough is very hot. Every year we think this is the hottest, and then the next year it gets hotter than the last," Nabeel Nawaz, who runs a restaurant in the center of the town, told CBS News as he sweltered through a July heatwave with temperatures in the 90s. The low hum of cooling units on Slough's massive data center hub, less than two miles from the heart of the town, provides a non-stop soundtrack for the surrounding area. Vents are seen on a data center in Slough, England, July 29, 2026. Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty The coolers regulate the temperature of the hundreds of computer servers inside the cavernous buildings, of which there are about 40 in Slough, transferring excess heat from the machines into water or air and then venting or evaporating the heat into the atmosphere outside.Many of the data centers around the worl...