It’s quite unexpected weather for the region— though of course what’s seriously abnormal in one place might be old normal hat for another. The dumb example here is “Oh, snow in the sahara? Well, here in Alaska we get snow all the time so what’s the big deal!”

For me the chief concerning thing is the “literally dozens of new fires” around the area.

It's just really unusual for the area. I've lived here for about 8 years, and during that time I've heard exactly two claps of thunder (until last night). Thunderstorms are just not a thing here.

Lifelong resident. It's unprecedented in my experience to see such a rapid change in the weather pattern here. We have rainstorms often enough, and we get heat waves at this time of year too, but our heat waves don't ordinarily get interrupted by storms with gale winds - they will always diffuse gradually into windy or foggy weather.

I had to remind myself seeing it suddenly pick up last night that no, the world isn't ending, this is an ordinary tropical pattern.

The red flag conditions make it ideal for fire starts, combined with high winds that can get out of control real quick.

I live in the Bay Area and I don't read it as dismissive. We're just soft. We can't drive in the rain, either.