HARRIS: More firefighters are headed to northern California's Santa Cruz Mountains today. The wildfire has forced thousands to evacuate. Winds coming off the ocean are pushing flames closer to the town of Bonny Doon. The fire is nowhere near contained. More than 3,000 acres have burned. The incoming firefighters will join about 675 or so now on the firelines. The fire about 60 miles south of San Francisco, threatening about 250 homes. And Bonnie Schneider is following all of this for us in the weather center. And Bonnie, you were telling me earlier that we're going to see some winds later in the day that will probably pose some problems for firefighters.</s>BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right because even though the winds are fairly light now, Tony, they will pick up later this afternoon, and not just this afternoon, but tomorrow, as well. The winds a huge factor because they not only spread the fires closer to the town, but they also can create brand-new fires. Take a look at this explainer, and you'll see what I'm talking about. I'm going to put this into play, and watch the action of the flames as the wind pushes them up into the trees, and then we see the trees kind of create little sparks, and they jump on to a new tree. This is known as spotting, and firefighters find this particularly challenging because it's difficult to know which way these fires will spot, whether or not we'll get new fires in a certain direction or not because it really does depend on which way the wind is coming from and the direction at which these fires actually re- create themselves and new fires. It's very hard to get ahead of the fire line for that reason. Another factor we're watching, of course, is the temperature. Right now, it's in the low 50s in and around the Bonny Doon area. Yesterday the high climbed to 79 degrees, but we're going to see temperatures cooler coming up. Only about 74 today. So, perhaps that will be a better factor. Well, stay tuned. Coming up, we'll have a closer look at the devastation in Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot. A live report is coming up.
Wildfires Burning in Northern California