• M365 E5 plans tend to include more than their Google Workspace counterparts
• Google can sometimes work out cheaper for Mac and Chromebook users
• Software is undergoing an AI change, so is it best to just wait?

New research from Senior Gartner principal analyst Domenico Scriva has deemed that switching from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace doesn’t actually deliver any meaningful savings (via The Register).

This is despite Google Workspace licenses generally coming in cheaper than their Microsoft 365 counterpart, M365 E5.

It’s not uncommon for teachers to experience what Ellen Moir, founder of the New Teacher Center, calls a “disillusionment phase” shortly after the start of the school year. Other educators call this phenomenon by a different name — the “October Blues.”

The October Blues affect teachers who find themselves in an emotional trough only a few weeks after the excitement of the new school year wears off. When they do catch a case of the October Blues, they often find it hard to focus and their energy saps.

The October Blues are particularly hard on first-year teachers, says Mike Anderson, author of “Rekindle Your Professional Fire: Powerful Habits for Becoming a More Well-Balanced Teacher” and “Hugging Porcupines.” Many new teachers have never heard of the October Blues and are ill-prepared to cope with this dip in enthusiasm. Unexpected bumps in the road like the October Blues are partly why teachers are 2.5 times more likely to quit after their first year.

An educational consultant and former teacher and swim coach, Mike Anderson has seen teachers grapple with the October Blues many times over the course of his career. He also experienced a bout of the October Blues  himself.

EdSurge spoke with Anderson about the October Blues and how teachers and administrators can keep them at bay.

EdSurge: How would you define the “October Blues”? Is there an actual definition or research?

Mike Anderson: If you talk to any [veteran] teacher, they’ll tell you there’s a predictable slump in energy that follows the first few weeks of school. When I was mentoring new teachers in my district, we used a graph showing the predictable energy curve of a teacher’s first year — it starts off high with anticipation and joy, then plummets early in the fall.

I think that happens for a couple of reasons. There’s so much energy and anticipation at the start of the year, and there’s only so long your brain can stay in that high place. When we get a real surge of joy, that’s fantastic — but the brain wants to return to a level playing field, and it often dips below baseline before it settles back to normal. It’s the hangover after the high.

The reverse happens, too. I’m about to go for a hard run right after this interview, and afterward I’ll get a runner’s high — a surge of positive emotion that follows pain or discomfort. I think something analogous happens with the October Blues: all the positive energy and anticipation of the first few weeks of school is exhausting. You’re “on” all the time. So there’s a predictable crash once that wears off, and both physical and emotional energy drop — but fortunately it’s not permanent and their energy will increase again.

Do we see the October Blues more in newer teachers or do veteran teachers get it too?

That’s a great question — I don’t know for certain. My guess is that once you’ve experienced it a few times, you start to recognize it as just a thing that happens. One of the scary parts of the October Blues in your first year is that if you don’t know it’s a known phenomenon, you start to question whether you should even be in the profession. Once you’ve been through it a few times, you can say, “Right, October’s a rough month, but I know I’ll have an upswing again.” So my guess is veteran teachers are more aware of the cycle and less panicked by it.

How does it show up in the classroom — for teachers and for students?

That’s such a multifaceted question. When I was writing “The Well-Balanced Teacher” — which I later rewrote into “Rekindle Your Professional Fire” — I looked at a study on how teachers’ emotional states are directly reflected in their students. It wasn’t specifically about the October Blues, but roughly 400 elementary students, mostly 4th and 5th graders, had their cortisol measured through saliva samples. Their teachers were surveyed on health, balance, and energy, and teachers who reported higher workplace stress had students with elevated cortisol levels.

So when teachers get stressed, kids get stressed too — and it goes the other way as well. In “Hugging Porcupines,” one chapter is called “The Honeymoon Is Over,” which is really about October. Kids and teachers both work hard to be their best selves for the first few weeks of school, and there’s only so long you can keep that up.

The work also gets harder in October, especially for students who struggle with learning — they can start to feel more overwhelmed, just as teachers start to feel the semester piling up. I’ll admit I’m speculating here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if decreasing daylight plays a role, too. By October in the Northern Hemisphere we’re getting more dark than light, and that’s got to have some influence.

What does it actually look like for a teacher who has the Blues while teaching?

Their fuse gets shorter — it’s harder to be patient with students who are struggling. It’s also harder to keep up with the planning that great teaching requires, so you might start winging it more, which is more stressful once you’re in it. Overall energy is lower. I remember trying to hold reading and writing conferences with students in the late morning and feeling blurry, almost like being hungover — everything felt a little fuzzy. It’s harder to stay sharp, harder to be patient, harder to keep your energy up for engaging lessons.

What was the October Blues like for you personally?

Early in my career, I was also a swim coach, and swim season started in October. So, I wasn’t just a month into the school year and feeling the regular fatigue that comes with that — I was also coaching an age-group team and a high school team, three or four hours of practice after school every day, on top of all the lesson planning. That extra load tends to hit right when the first few “easy” weeks of the school year — before committee meetings and most extracurriculars ramp up — give way to everything piling in at once, unless you’re coaching something like football that starts in late summer.

Have the October Blues gotten harder or easier over the years?

(Laughing) What hasn’t changed in the last 10 years on this planet? I think we’re all a little more on edge than we were 10 years ago — and honestly, we were already in social chaos back then, too. We’re more dysregulated now than we were 10 or 15 years ago. Politics is chaotic, the social and online environment is chaotic. You rarely hear anyone say, “I feel so much more relaxed and healthy than I did 10 years ago.” If we’re all more dysregulated, it makes sense our kids are, too — and the number and severity of behavior problems in schools is going through the roof. There’s a lot we could point to, and I think we need to stop blaming COVID — that was real and it was hard on all of us, but the rise in dysregulated kids has been especially pronounced over the last decade, and that takes a huge physical and emotional toll on teachers.

Do you think AI is affecting this at all? I’m not sure it’s even measurable yet, but I do wonder if there is some residual effect from using AI in the classroom and out.

Maybe. My take is that for teachers, AI is one more new thing they have to learn, manage, and figure out — both what’s OK in their own teaching and planning, and how to manage students’ AI use. That’s part of what’s accelerated over the last 10 years: teachers almost always feel like they’re on the steep end of the learning curve. Something I talked about in 2017 was how a sense of competence is critical to wellness and happiness at work — not just in teaching, but in any profession. If you don’t think you’re good at what you do, it’s hard to stay positive and energized. That’s especially tough for teachers, who rarely get the chance to feel like they’ve finally got it down. AI is just another learning curve on top of that.

Is there any way to avoid the October Blues, or do you just have to get good at recognizing it?

There’s probably no way to avoid it entirely — the same way you can’t run a marathon and avoid being tired. But recognizing that it’s a normal, shared experience and not a personal flaw really helps. Beyond that, it’s not rocket science: sleeping, eating healthy food, a healthy exercise routine — even something as simple as putting on your sneakers for a brisk 20-minute walk as soon as the last kid leaves. Small, sustainable habits that keep your energy up over the long run were a big theme in “Rekindle Your Professional Fire,” which is all about supporting teacher health and balance. Don’t look for major changes — those are almost impossible to sustain. Look for small ways to get a bit more sleep, a bit more movement, and some healthier food. Those things help not just in October, but all year long.

How can administrators and principals help? I wonder if their experience can be of help here.

Acknowledging the reality of October Blues with faculty can help, especially for new teachers who might not know to watch for it. Beyond that, school leaders can look for small ways to help teachers stay healthier and happier — providing healthy snacks instead of the highly processed junk food that’s often the easiest option at faculty meetings (fresh fruit or cheese and crackers instead of candy), making sure hydration stations are available, and paying attention to workload. There are almost always a few teachers in a school doing way too much — running committees, leading the union, and so on. Finding ways to take a few things off those teachers’ plates is another way leaders can support them.

Are there resources to prepare first-year teachers about the October Blues? 

I certainly didn’t know it was a thing my first year. Some mentoring programs do train mentors to understand the common energy cycles new teachers go through, so teachers lucky enough to have well-trained mentors may get more information. But for a lot of new teachers, it’s just not on their radar — they’re too consumed with the day-to-day work of running a classroom. One of my daughter’s close friends, practically a second daughter to me, is a first-year 4th grade teacher in San Francisco. She’s smart, well-prepared, and both her parents are teachers, so she had a real head start. But I know from talking with her parents that she’s already overwhelmed just a couple weeks in, because there’s so much new to learn all at once. She doesn’t have the headspace to think about her own emotional energy — she’s just trying to manage the class and get through the day.

When do the October Blues stop being just the October Blues? How long does it typically take to recover?

I honestly don’t know if there’s a documented answer — whether it’s one week, two weeks, or four. As a teacher, I didn’t experience the whole month as a slog, but I think every teacher is a little different. There’s often another predictable energy dip later in the year, too — late winter or early spring, around the start of the second semester on a high school schedule — when it’s cold, dark, and everyone’s tired. So there are cycles of energy through the year, but I don’t know of a specific documented recovery timeline.

Should it ideally ease up so teachers can rebound?

If it’s lasting more than a couple of weeks, I’d tell a new teacher to talk to a colleague, a mentor, or an administrator — say, “I’m having a hard time right now,” and get some help. It can’t last all year. Our students need us to have good, positive energy.

How do the October Blues relate to teachers’ feelings of competence?

When we feel incompetent, our energy for work drops. It’s hard to be motivated when you feel like you’re not good at what you’re doing.

I once worked with a group of teachers for a couple of years. I remembered how hard that first October had been for them — they were down in the dumps. By the next October, after we’d done a lot of work together on classroom management and student engagement, their energy was noticeably brighter and they were laughing more. When I pointed that out and asked if their classes were just easier that year, they said no — if anything, their classes were harder! But this time, they felt like they knew what to do; they had strategies to try. The year before, their classes had felt like they were falling apart, and they didn’t know what to do — that’s what had made them feel so defeated. Having practical strategies for management and engagement meant they didn’t experience the October Blues the same way the second time around.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

EdSurge is an editorially independent digital news site of the International Society for Transforming Education.

Kia rolled out the PV7 this week at IAA Transportation 2026 in Hannover as the second all-electric model in its Platform Beyond Vehicle family, a step up from the smaller PV5 that went on sale last year. This one targets the midsize light-commercial segment that fleets actually live in, with a blunt one-box shape, short overhangs, a visor-like dark band wrapping the windshield, thin daytime running lights that climb the A-pillars, and chunky wheel arches that give the sides more presence than a typical delivery box. Passenger and Cargo versions share the same Long shell for now, with Compact, high-roof, chassis-cab, and conversion bodies promised later as Kia works toward 23 variants.

The Long PV7 is about two feet longer than the PV5, measuring 5,350mm in length, 1,995mm in width, and 1,990mm in height, with a wheelbase of 3,500mm. It falls just shy of being a long-wheelbase Ford Transit Custom or Volkswagen Transporter. A specialized skateboard for the E-GMP.S powertrain keeps the floor flat from bulkhead to tail, lowering the Cargo Long’s loading height to 550mm and allowing three Euro pallets to be easily slipped in. The standard roof Cargo model carries 6.1 cubic meters, while the High Roof version holds a spacious 8.0 cubic meters. The payload is a reasonable 1,165 kilos on the Long model and 1,200 kilograms on the Compact, with D-ring tie-downs and an option of lift-up or twin-swing tailgates for easy maneuvering around tight alleys.

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The floor houses two nickel-cobalt-manganese battery packs, one with a capacity of 71.5k.Wh capacity is tailored at shorter journeys, while the Long Range Cargo’s 96.2kWh pack is quoted as good for over 460km (286 miles) on the WLTP cycle, though official homologation is still waiting. The front motor can generate up to 200kW and 420 newton-metres, which are transmitted to the front wheels during launch; a twin motor all-wheel-drive system is planned for later. In addition to this, the 800-volt system represents a significant departure from the PV5’s 400-volt configuration. When connected to a 350kW DC charger, the pack can charge from 10 to 80 percent in roughly 20 minutes. There are dual ports as standard, a front AC/DC intake, and an optional rear-side AC port, allowing you to connect in regardless of how your bay is laid out. Vehicle-to-load outlets allow you to power equipment or even a campground refrigerator without having to bring out a generator.

In terms of passenger layouts, you start with the 7-seat option, which includes rail-mounted Easy Remove chairs that fold or may be taken out completely, and then progress to 9 seats in most markets or 11 seats in Korea. Behind the wheel, you’ll find a lovely sleek digital cluster paired with a 12.9 or 14.6-inch screen running the Pleos Connect system on Android Automotive, with Gleo voice control for all the essentials like navigation, climate, and messages. You still have physical climate controls, and there’s a fold-down console table that serves as a convenient work area when needed. If you opt for a cargo cab, you can choose between a 2- or 3-seater, and the dedicated heavy-load drive mode improves response when the floor is stacked, but for fleet managers, Kia also offers a Business Solutions portal and Uptime monitoring, which provides information on charging, maintenance, and predictive alerts.

The PV5 has already shown to be a good foundation for camper builders, but the PV7 raises the bar with an extra length and around 10cm more breadth, which translates into a lot more kitchen space, a wider bed, and a little more breathing space. Sussex Campervans has already begun sketching out ideas for its PV7 ‘Kingfisher’ layout, which will include a pop top roof, a side kitchen, induction hobs, and even space for four people to sleep below. Kia has been welcoming conversion specialists this year, and it is depending on that network, as well as its industry-leading guarantee, to avoid all of the extra labor from becoming a nightmare. If the mid-size van sells well, the club is considering a larger PV9 for 2029.

Sales are expected to begin in South Korea and Europe in the second half of 2027, from the same Hwaseong factory that currently makes the PV5. Expect additional markets and body types to follow. We’ve already seen some prototypes being tested on US roads, but Kia hasn’t said when or how much it will cost. For the time being, the PV7 is a serious work van with adequate range, charge speed, and a level floor to make it a viable option for fleets, shuttle operators, and anyone looking for an electric van that can transport three pallets on Monday and sleep four by Friday.

AI adoption is growing across businesses, but it is also creating a bigger need for data storage. As organizations use AI for more tasks, they need to store and manage more data. Seagate’s new 2026 Data Infrastructure Readiness Report shows that 99% of organizations expect AI to increase their storage needs over the next three years. However, only 38% say they are fully prepared to handle this demand.

AI Is Creating a Bigger Storage Challenge

AI adoption is increasing the amount of data businesses need to store and manage. As more companies use AI, their storage requirements are also growing. Seagate says 99% of organizations expect their storage needs to rise over the next three years. Moreover, 32% expect their storage requirements to grow by more than 50%. However, only 38% say they are fully prepared for this increase. This gap shows why businesses need to plan their storage infrastructure alongside their AI investments.

Deploying AI at scale requires not only high-performance computing systems but also reliable data and strong storage infrastructure. According to a Seagate report, data readiness is the biggest barrier, cited by 53% of firms. Storage infrastructure ranks next at 43%, while compute availability ranks third at 27%. Energy availability is another constraint, accounting for 24%. These constraints may hamper firms’ efforts to deploy and use AI.

Meanwhile, 98% of firms believe AI is creating strategic importance for storage infrastructure. The main barriers include AI strategy maturity (16%), followed by budget and resources (14%). Data management and governance also account for 14%.

AI Investments Are Increasing the Value of Data

Businesses are experiencing actual results from investing in artificial intelligence and increasing the value of data in the process. “Seagate found that 86% of companies have achieved at least moderate to significant returns on AI investment.” 33% of them achieved significant returns on investment in AI. These ROI results prompt enterprises to treat data as an asset for a long time. At the same time, enterprises need infrastructure that enables data storage, management, and access. 76% consider data center investment one of their top three infrastructure priorities. For 20%, it is their highest infrastructure investment priority.

Sustainability Is Becoming Part of AI Infrastructure Planning

As AI workloads grow, businesses are also paying closer attention to their energy use and environmental impact. Seagate says 77% of organizations have delayed or restructured AI infrastructure expansion due to sustainability or energy concerns. This includes 36% that have significantly restructured their plans. Meanwhile, 97% believe extending infrastructure lifecycles can improve sustainability. 94% also expect their storage operations to become more sustainable over the next five years. AI-driven energy consumption leads the environmental concerns at 52%, while carbon emissions from energy consumption follow at 51%. Seagate’s Sustainable Scaling approach aims to address these issues by growing AI capacity while improving efficiency, sustainability, and long-term data value.

This week, two guests look at the same problem from opposite ends. One has the data on how far struggling middle school readers have fallen. The other has watched it happen in real time, in a classroom, one comprehension question at a time. Reading recovery has largely worked in this country, except for this one group, and neither guest thinks that’s a coincidence. Both point to the same root cause: the fixes that worked for younger readers were never designed to reach kids once they’re already behind in middle school.

The Recovery That Left Some Kids Behind

Post-pandemic reading scores have mostly been trending up, but Megan Kuhfeld’s research at NWEA found one exception: the lowest-performing middle school readers, who are losing ground every year instead of catching up. She explains why the literacy reforms that worked so well in the early grades stop helping right when these students need them most, and what a handful of states are doing differently. Kuhfeld also lays out just how long real recovery takes, and why she thinks of it as a multi-year effort rather than a single fix.

Where Comprehension Breaks Down

Dacia Toll spent years running schools before co-founding Coursemojo, an AI literacy platform. She explains why so many kids who read fluently in fourth grade suddenly can’t answer a basic comprehension question by sixth, tracing it to two forces that hit at the same time: texts get harder, and the background knowledge needed to make sense of them gets more specialized. She also draws a sharp line between AI tools that just hand students an answer and ones built to send a struggling reader back into the text to work it out for themselves, and makes the case for why that distinction matters more than most classroom AI policies currently account for. Neither guest thinks this gap closes by accident, and neither do we.

Listen to the episode:

Stories Mentioned in This Episode
Reading Scores Continue to Drop for Many Middle Schoolers by David Weldon
AI Can Help One of K-12’s Biggest Challenges: Middle School Reading by Dacia Toll

This Week with EdSurge is a weekly podcast from EdSurge. Subscribe to the EdSurge newsletters for more news and analysis on education and technology.

First look: MediaTek has introduced its first smartphone processor made using TSMC’s 2-nanometer manufacturing process, stepping up its efforts to win more business in the high-end phone market. The Dimensity 9600 Pro is designed for flagship phones and includes a dedicated neural processing unit for generative AI tasks that run on the device. MediaTek said the chip improves prompt processing by 51% compared with the previous generation before an AI model begins producing a response.

The company also announced the Dimensity 9600M, a 3nm chip aimed at a wider range of flagship phones. MediaTek said handsets using both processors will launch soon, though it did not identify the manufacturers or provide a specific timeframe.

The new chips arrive as phone makers look for ways to run more AI features locally. On-device processing can reduce the need to send data to remote servers and may improve response times for certain tasks. It also requires more computing power inside the phone, particularly from neural processing hardware.

MediaTek is using the 2nm process for the 9600 Pro as it tries to compete more aggressively in premium phones, a segment where Qualcomm has a strong position. Higher-end devices generally offer better returns for chip suppliers, while AI features have become an important selling point for manufacturers.

The move also reflects changes in the broader smartphone market. Flagship phone prices are rising as manufacturers add more advanced components, larger storage capacities, and new hardware designs. Apple’s foldable iPhone, announced last week, will cost up to $3,199 in the US for its highest-storage version.

MediaTek corporate senior vice president JC Hsu said the company is working with phone makers to contain the effect of higher component costs on consumers. AI demand has put pressure on supplies of advanced components and manufacturing capacity.

“As the overall market moves to higher prices, I believe there is still room for us to increase our share of the flagship segment,” Hsu told Reuters.

MediaTek has supplied mobile chips to Chinese phone makers including Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo. The Dimensity 9600 Pro and 9600M give those companies, as well as other handset makers, new processors for phones that place greater emphasis on AI features.

The company is also extending its AI strategy beyond smartphones. It has been developing data-center and custom-chip products as cloud providers and technology companies spend heavily on AI infrastructure.

MediaTek said its first AI accelerator for a major US cloud service provider is expected to enter mass production in the fourth quarter. The company did not identify the customer.

Apple is putting the iPhone 18 Pro into the hands of three acclaimed photographers to see what its redesigned camera system is capable of.

Announced at September’s “Surprise and Shine” event, Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro brings several changes to the iPhone camera system. These include a variable aperture and improved low-light photography.

As with previous iPhone generations, Apple has handed the device to professional photographers to demonstrate what its cameras can produce.

Apple’s latest Shot on iPhone project is “What Holds Us,” a photography exhibition featuring work shot entirely on iPhone 18 Pro. The exhibition includes work from photographers Alex Prager, Jack Davison, and Jimmy Chin.

Kathy Ryan, former New York Times Magazine photography director, curated the exhibition. It centers around the theme of human connection.

“What Holds Us” opens in New York City on September 18 and runs through September 20. Apple says the exhibition will later travel to London and Shanghai.

Jimmy Chin

Jimmy Chin is a climber, adventure photographer, and Academy Award-winning filmmaker known for documenting people in extreme environments. For the exhibition, Chin photographed climbers in British Columbia’s Bugaboo Mountains.

“I’ve always been interested in human passion and meaning, and where that intersects with the raw beauty of wild landscapes,” explains Chin. “When you spend a lot of time in these places, you start to look at things differently. You start to see the details.”

Image credit: Jimmy Chin via Apple

He used the iPhone 18 Pro for close-ups, action shots, and large panoramas while working in the mountains.

Utilizing an iPhone, effectively a point-and-shoot camera, allowed Chin to carry less while working in difficult conditions. This was a huge boon for both practicality and safety, as during Chin’s time on the mountain, winds reached up to 70 miles per hour.

Jack Davison

Jack Davison is a portrait photographer and director known for high-contrast images using strong blacks and whites. His work for “What Holds Us” focuses on people interacting with clay and chalk.

Image credit: Jack Davison via Apple

“I genuinely was blown away by the camera on iPhone 18 Pro,” Davison notes. “There was something about the quality of the imagery that felt like a huge leap. Not just from a technical standpoint, but in its ability to create more artistic and surreal images.”

The resulting images are visceral, with subjects covered in clay as they themselves become human sculptures. Ryan was particularly impressed with the contrasts, highlights, and shadows Davison achieved without a darkroom.

Alex Prager

Alex Prager is known for staged, cinematic photographs that often feature large groups of people and heavily constructed scenes. Her work for the exhibition combined overhead crowd scenes with tighter portraits of individual subjects.

Prager used the iPhone 18 Pro’s camera system to move between those perspectives while shooting on a Los Angeles soundstage.

Image credit: Alex Prager via Apple

“Photography has changed a lot, and this particular camera is more like a video stream, in essence, which also shapes how we approach images today — more like video with higher output in our photo albums and on social media,” Prager explains.

“It was exciting for me to think about all of this while harking back to a timeless crowd winding down from a celebration.”

Ryan believes that Prager’s method of working showed what the iPhone 18 Pro was capable of.

“She was able to take advantage of iPhone’s ease of use and adaptability while also maintaining the high production values seen on a major film set,” Ryan said.

One of the nice things about the weather is that even if it’s bad right now, it’ll definitely be changing soon and maybe even for the better. There is one exception to this rule, however, and that comes in the form of heat domes, which are weather systems whereby a region of air becomes isolated from the surrounding systems. This creates effectively a greenhouse, with hot air remaining trapped and moisture unable to get in.

Although until recently not very common, this weather phenomenon poses a major challenge to any flora and fauna that finds itself trapped in a heat dome. With nights being about as hot and stifling as the days with their blue skies unbroken by any cloud cover and no rain for potentially weeks on end, it poses severe hydration, cardiovascular, and other challenges to any affected lifeforms.

Hot Summers Vs Heat Domes

Although it can be easy to mix up hot summer weeks, heatwaves, and heat domes, these terms all have their own specific meaning and implications. Each season has its own typical weather patterns and associated minimum- and maximum temperatures. These exact values have also fluctuated over the centuries and millennia due to a variety of factors, but the important detail is whether this typical maximum temperature is exceeded in a significant manner.

A heat dome is, for instance, not just a heatwave. The exact definition of a heatwave is not universal, but in general it means at least a couple of days of day-time temperature excursions well above this average maximum. In the UK for example at least two days are required before it is officially termed a ‘heatwave’. These heatwaves have become more common as global surface temperatures have increased on account of anthropogenic climate change.

A heat dome requires two factors to form, the first being a period of calm, warm weather, the second being a large area of high pressure that remains in place for an extended period of time. As the hot air rises, the high pressure in the higher atmosphere layers pushes back on this air, compressing it and causing adiabatic heating.

This creates a cycle in which the increasingly warmer and drier soil is exposed to the relentless Sun in the cloudless sky, with even nights bringing barely any change. What keeps this stagnant air from dissipating an “atmospheric block”.

Weather Block

There are two types of blocks: omega and diffluent blocks. The omega block is commonly observed with heat domes, creating the Ω-shaped pattern from which it derives its name.

How long these blocks persist can differ wildly. The UK experienced a very hot Summer in 1976 when such a block persisted for months and thus drove up temperatures. Generally they last on the order of days to weeks.

Because of how heatwaves and heat domes overlap without a clear distinction, once you add a blocking system the UK’s Met Office prefers to call them ‘persistent summer blocking highs’, as this is their most defining feature. This can also be seen pretty well on maps of the 2021 Western North America heat wave.

Pacific Heat 2021

Affecting much of Western North America from late June through early July, this extreme heatwave broke many records, including the highest temperature ever measured in Canada, at 49.6 °C. Eventually classified as a heat dome, by the time it dissipated around 1,400 excess deaths among the human population were recorded, as well as countless more deaths among farm animals, in addition to the highly destructive Lytton wildfire and general damage to agriculture.

In this case a block ensured that this area of static hot air could not dissipate or otherwise experience some cooling air from the Pacific.

The formation of this block was predicted by meteorologists after they observed warm, moist air from torrential rains in China make its way across the Pacific with help from the jet stream. At this time the Southwestern US was already experiencing a drought, setting the stage for the heat wave by providing additional heat to the Pacific Northwest.

As can be seen in the below barometric chart of the time, this led to the air transported by the jet stream to become trapped in between low pressure areas, exerting downwards pressure on the area below that was already enjoying a warm summer.

A similar phenomenon occurred over Europe during the summer of 2026, with multiple heatwaves involving heat domes forming and persisting for weeks on end. Previous summers in Europe had already significantly warmer and drier than previously, creating the conditions for a record-breaking summer.

With the blistering 2025 European summer already causing many wildfires and excess mortality cases, the summer of 2026 was by all metrics more severe. This raises the awkward question of we can expect things to only get worse from here, not just in Europe but worldwide.

Heat In The System

Ultimately the mechanisms that drive the formation of heatwaves and heat domes become more effective when there is more thermal energy in the system. This means more torrential rains, a higher surface temperature, more droughts and so on.

Of all of Earth’s continents, Europe is the one that is warming up the fastest, with already 2.3 °C above preindustrial levels in 2022. Although there are ways to adapt to a drier, hotter climate, including for our thermal power plants, ideally we would reduce the amount of energy in the Earth’s weather systems.

Doing this means effectively reverting as much as possible of anthropogenic climate change by not adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, including SF6 which is still very common in switching gear, including that installed in wind turbines. Even as we build out our grids with more clean power, it’s of course essential to also keep an eye on grid stability.

Ultimately this increase in heatwaves, and worse, is largely a human-made phenomenon which fortunately means that we also have the power to make the planet cool down again. As fascinating of a meteorological phenomenon a heat dome is, it’s definitely one of those things that’s best enjoyed once every generation or less.

Overdone weather graphics from the 2021 Pacific Heat Dome from CBS News.