Ireland bomb cyclone, new California fires and a meteorologist fired over the truth

Bomb cyclones are bombing toward northwest Europe while new fires go from spark to angry dragon in hours across portions of Southern California. As far as the title and this week’s “hot take Thursday” go … I promise these won’t all have a political twinge. See yesterday’s, if you don’t believe me!

Weather Watch

Ireland under the gun. A potentially historic bomb cyclone is on the way to Ireland and the United Kingdom. It should easily reach the definition of a weather bomb amid very rapid intensification Thursday. All of Ireland is under a code red, the highest weather alert, with gusts of 80-plus mph expected. UK’s Met Office also has Northern Ireland under code red, as well as portions of Scotland including Glasgow and Edinburgh. The worst is expected Thursday night and Friday.

New explosive fires in Los Angeles County. Wednesday was the first edition of the Retort without mention of California wildfires. During the midday a new blaze broke out near Castaic Lake in northern LA County, quickly burned through 10,000 acres and led to tens of thousands of evacuations. Wednesday night, a second significant wildfire began near the Sepulveda Pass. Another day of critical fire weather is on tap Thursday.

Lightning links

Florida set a new state snowfall record Tuesday into Wednesday with 9.8 inches in Milton, the same place that held the prior record of 4 inches.

Videos show Gulf Coast beaches covered in snow.

(Not that) Hot take Thursday

Days into the golden age of America, journalist scientists are being fired. In one case, ostensibly for failing to reject the evidence of what their eyes had seen.

A talk show host and apparent bully from Milwaukee spilled the beans that meteorologist Sam Kuffel had intense feelings about Elon Musk doing what looked exactly — Google “Neo Nazi dudes in Florida” — like a certain infamous one-armed salute at an inauguration event Monday. Kuffel shared her thoughts on her personal Instagram account.

Having connected with Sam via social media for more years than I can remember, I have trouble recalling any political remarks. Just honest and factual reporting. Unlike many people with a megaphone at multiple outlets, Kuffel turned to her private account to make what felt to her, and still feels to many, like an important point.

Maybe Elon didn’t know what he was doing. Or he might have forgotten he was in front of a huge crowd and on live television when he executed the move. I guess it’s tough being an all-knowing super genius, one who backs Germany’s far-right AfD, yet is so generally clueless.

Consider letting the general manager at CBS 58 how you feel about this issue.

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As a forecaster, journalist and certified weather freak (there's a badge, trust me), a big part of my job is analyzing the playing field of global weather and related climate change stories to decide which ones to spend more time on.

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