Wrath in Matthew is not generic weather. It is the covenant lawsuit reaching sentence.
The prophets sued Israel with vineyard, shepherds, and temple speeches. John stands in that line: brood of vipers, coming wrath, trees cut down, chaff burned — Deuteronomy’s curse language arriving on schedule.
Matthew 3 sets the tone before Jesus utters a public parable. The same fire-and-axe images return in Matthew 21–23 and climax in 24.
AD 70 is where that lawsuit became visible in stone and fire. The wrath John promised is not an unused threat waiting for a different Israel.
Judgment on that world is how the New Creation world was cleared to stand alone.