Part of it is the images. Everyone has a high quality camera in their pocket plus webcams etc. when a major US city looks like Mars it goes bonkers level.
And you are right about the CC part being overblown but it might be a tiny piece.
I hadn't heard of those, so I googled and found this: Scary stuff at the start of WW 2
https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/four-days-may-1942-rhode-island-forest-fires/
I read about that fire when I was a youth... loved reading about natural and manmade disasters. I cannot even fathom how people dealt with that in the 1870s. No real communication or way to fight fire.
The Maine fires in the 1940s always intrigued me
High of 91F but just got a big cell to drop it 66F
was driving through Barre and Hubbardston in a deluge. Some thunder and lightning. Wiz would approve