If you don’t know what a pyrocumulonimbus is, don’t worry. We’ll explain it all to ya on today’s BradCast…even if we still have trouble pronouncing it. But, today’s logo uses a photo of one from this past weekend in southwestern France. I know, it looks like AI. But Vatican News suggests otherwise and we should be able to trust them, right? WIRED features another photo from the same beach of the same phenomenon. [Audio to full show follows this summary.]
In short, pyrocumulonimbus translates to “fire cloud”. It’s a lightning and thunder storm created by and above a wildfire that is so out of control that it creates its own weather system. That fire-fueled storm then creates still more fires from its lightning strikes and dictates the movement of the fire with its own massive height and unpredictable wind patterns that spread embers, making things even worse. “It’s a feedback loop, not a one-way effect,” one pyroCb expert explains to AP.
Seen more often in North America and Australia, France appears to have experienced the first pyroCb in their history over the weekend, along with their largest-ever peacetime evacuations. Neighboring Spain is also wrestling with its own super-charged, record-breaking, climate change-fueled wildfires at the same time. Fires have burned more than 162 square miles in France and 193 square miles in Spain in recent days. Nearly 800 square miles have been charred in both nations this year alone.
Back here at home, suffocating record heat in many parts of the country, with wildfires raging out of control in several states in recent days. Most recently in Oregon and Washington state, though Minnesota has been facing down horrible lightning-sparked wildfires over the past month, especially in the Superior National Forest, where the Trump Administration’s DOGE Bros slashed a $10 million, “shovel-ready” Biden Administration project last year after taking office which might have prevented the massive wildfire disaster still underway in the northeastern part of the Northstar State.
Those stories help kick off today’s show and seem to set the stage for all that comes after. Among the other stories covered on today’s program…
- Why Iran is in no hurry to begin talks with the U.S., no matter how much Donald Trump is lying about that.
- The late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was memorialized at the U.S. Capitol today before his burial tomorrow in his home state. Not attending was his good friend, the supposedly not-dead-yet Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who hasn’t been back at work for more than 40 days while enjoying the paid sick leave that Republicans in Congress have ensured the rest of America doesn’t get to enjoy. Whether McConnell is alive or not, Kentucky’s Democratic Governor and, theoretical, 2028 Presidential hopeful, Andy Beshear, sent a second sternly-worded letter to the Senator’s office demanding an explanation, or that McConnell resign. He is unlikely to see either demand met — at least until after August 3rd. Tune in for more details on that.
- Good news from Republicans in Missouri, if you can believe it! A few of them joined with Democrats in the state legislator to pass a new law that will restore voting rights to an estimated 40,000 Missourians currently on probation or parole. The new law — which includes some caveats — largely reverses the state’s decades-long racist policy of stripping former felons of the right to vote.
- And, more good news for voters in neighboring Kansas…at least for the moment. On Monday, the Kansas Court of Appeals rejected an emergency bid from the state’s Republican Sec. of State Scott Schwab to toss out a lower court ruling that allows mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive up to three days afterward. That has been the law in the state for nearly 10 years, until Republicans adopted a new law this year believed by the lower district court to violate the state’s Constitution. KS is holding its midterm primary elections next Tuesday (August 4) and, as of now anyway, late arriving ballots will be tallied. On Tuesday, however, Schwab went to the Kansas Supreme Court in hopes of an emergency ruling that would prevent thousands of Kansans from having their votes counted in next week’s primaries.
- FINALLY…Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, picking up on the various signs of the Apocalypse now sweeping the globe, including that pyrocumulonimbus firestorm in France that serves as an all too apt metaphor for the state of the world on today’s BradCast…
The BradCastwith Brad Friedman7/28/2026Surviving the Pyrocumulonimbus: ‘BradCast’ 7/28/2026 | Apocalyptic heat, firestorms in Europe, U.S.; Trump's costly DOGE cuts to wildfire management in MN; McConnell still either dead or alive; Good news for voters in MO and KS!... · · · · · Surviving the Pyrocumulonimbus: ‘BradCast’ 7/28/2026 | Apocalyptic heat, firestorms in Europe, U.S.; Trump's costly DOGE cuts to wildfire management in MN; McConnell still either dead or alive; Good news for voters in MO and KS!...0:00 0:00* * * While we post The BradCast here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they’re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at iTunes, Pandora, TuneIn, iHeart, Amazon or our native RSS feed!The BRAD BLOG, The BradCast and Green News Report are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!
