California wildfires: Experts weigh in on dangerous conditions bleeding into December

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- As the Bay Area waits for rain - Southern California battles the flames. Firefighters are working into the night to stop the Franklin Fire racing through Malibu.

Helicopters are flying all night making water drops as crews on the ground protect homes and Pepperdine University.

RELATED: Southern California fire grows to over 3,000 acres in Malibu amid dangerous conditions

The same system bringing fire risk to Southern California fueled damaging winds in the East Bay overnight.

"It's always kind of a wild card to see where the fire activity is going to be, whether it's going to be up North or down South," says Paul Lowenthal of the Santa Rosa Fire Department.

In this case, the fire is down South. According to the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the Franklin Fire has burned more than 3,000 acres, destroyed at least seven homes, and damaged at least eight more.

Lowenthal has seen changes in the weather pattern firsthand. Last month, Santa Rosa received more than 14 inches of rain in a matter of days.

"Clearly there was a period of several years where a lot of the fire activity was in the northern part of the state. What happened here in Sonoma County from 17 through 20, and now we've seen a little bit of a shift to more of the activity down South this time of year," says Lowenthal.

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It hasn't been just fires in the state of California over the past 48 hours. Heavy winds took down a massive redwood tree overnight Monday. It fell onto a home in Berkeley. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

"The winds that we had in Northern California last night and this morning were actually part of the same fire weather regime that was happening in Southern California. It was this big high-pressure system sitting over the interior of the Western U.S.," said Associate Professor William Boos at UC Berkeley.

As for the Franklin Fire, likely something we'll continue to watch from afar in Northern California.

"The chances of a large devastating fire like what we're seeing to the South happening to the North with the rains that we're having, the fuel moisture levels we're having now, it's just not very likely," says Lowenthal.