www.alphadictionary.com

Recently, I've been seeing or hearing comparisons phrased like this:
"this is about as bad of a natural disaster ..."
(from a news report about the California rains), where I wouldn't use "of". The formula seems to be "an x of a y".

Is this usage increasing, or is it just my imagination?

I tried to determine whether this had already been discussed, but my attempts to search for a phrase failed miserably. Is that possible, and if so, how?

I haven't heard 'as x of a y', but 'a[n] x of a y' is used in such phrases as 'a giant of a man', 'a monster of a storm' etc. And of course 'a hell of a [thing]'.

Thank you for catching my mistaken formula. It should be "as x of a y".

Of course, "an x of a y" works, as your excellent examples of its use demonstrate.

I suppose the "of" in the construction to which I object has taken hold by (spurious) analogy.