Report Finds Nearly 80 Percent of Datacenters Exposed to Climate Hazards

A new report by climate risk analytics firm First Street finds nearly 80 percent of datacenters exposed to extreme climate hazards including flooding, extreme winds and wildfires. The study examined 97 global datacenter markets and determined that chronic factors such as extreme heat and drought affect 54 percent of those markets. Regional differences stand out in the data.

The Americas account for 86 percent of datacenter capacity located in elevated-risk markets for flood, wind and wildfire, compared with 60 percent in the Asia-Pacific region and 25 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. For heat and drought, the Asia-Pacific region shows 89 percent exposure while about 50 percent of U.S. datacenters and 46 percent of those in Europe, the Middle East and Africa face similar conditions.

Within the United States, the Carolinas, Atlanta, the New York-New Jersey region and northern Virginia rank among the 10 most exposed areas. Johor in Malaysia and Marseille in France also appear among the most vulnerable markets, while Helsinki in Finland registers lower risk and slower recent buildout.

Jeremy Porter, chief economist at First Street, said location decisions shape long-term operating costs.

“Where you build a data center determines a large share of what it will cost to run for the next 20 or 30 years,” he stated. ” Matthew Eby, founder and chief executive of First Street, noted that underwriting practices continue to rely on historical records.

“Most underwriting for real assets still uses historical data, but the climate is no longer behaving the way the historical record would predict,” Eby said.

Porter added that scale continues to expand in the hardest operating environments rather than the easiest ones. A photograph dated 31 May 2026 shows one such facility in Ashburn, Virginia, a major concentration of datacenter capacity.