stunning. it is a different story across the search zone. they ve lost some of the steering characteristics that have moved it along. it s parked over ahead and it will rein itself out over the western fringe. still a lot of cloud cover. the concern remains for reduced visibility. a lot of wind to deal with as well. as far as the upper level winds, could be upwards of 80, 90 miles an hour above where the aircraft are flying down into the search zone. you take a look. there s another storm system beginning to develop. the concerns over the gulf and the timor sea where a complex of thunderstorms are in place. the warning guides are giving us a medium chance of forming in the next couple of days. if it does form historically, you can see it gaining strength and pushing back west and moving south towards the area of search. something important to note, it was exactly 30 days ago today we had tropical cyclone jillian which was a category 5
it s far short from confirming that the black boxes from mh370. here s where things stand. the sixth week of the mystery is now under way with up to 12 planes and 14 ships involved in sunday s search in the southern indian ocean. a number of objects have been spotted and recovered thus far. but none is linked to the missing boeing 777. still no new underwater pings heard since tuesday. meanwhile, ma la shah s transport minister says officials are discussing which country will be given custody of the airliner s flight recorders if they re recovered from the ocean. last week we watched a t the visual search area in the southern indian ocean was continuously scaled back pretty much on a daily basis. but today the search zone was expanded to more than 57,000 square kilometers. sunday s zone is roughly the size of kree wcroatia, more thae the size of the u.s. state of massachusetts. straight to the base of operations in perth, australia
where we find cnn s aaron mclaughlin. let s start with the search zone. after shrinking all this past week why was the area suddenly expanded tooed? reporter: officials today didn t say specifically. but they have been steadily refining the debris search zone. they really only expanded around 6,000 square miles today which isn t all that much when you consider that the current debris field is about a quarter of what it was some ten days ago. while they ve been really successful at refining this search field, narrowing it down, they ve been less successful at actually finding anything. after hours and hours and hours of meticulously combing, they still have yet to find a single piece of this plane. that being said, they have had some 36 days of oceanic drift to contend with. they have. they have a lot to contend with. we heard those statements from the australian prime minister,
whether they can discount it or verify in the next few hours. you add to that refinement of the search zone. what they re talking about is the southern sector. it is encouraging the chinese ship was wearing acoustic signals from the southern sector. having said this, i know family members are in contact with chief houston leading this effort here in australia. of course you hear the news and think did you find the plane? these are from family members that thought they weren t even looking in the right place. i want you to listen. he says what we re doing is for the families and we always have them in mind. we need to keep at the forefront of their minds families and friends of 239 passengers on board the flight. speculation and unconfirmed reports can see a the loved ones
worsen dramatically. a tropical cyclone is now brewing. for now, the search zone is about 932 miles out to sea, and nbc s ian williams is in perth where the malaysian and aussie prime minister met today. reporter: good day to you, abby. the prime minister of malaysia was here in perth today meeting his australian counterpart, and also meeting the air crews who are at the sharp end of this search, a search which the prime minister says will go on until answers are found. his australian counterpart tony abbott said we re throwing everything we can at the search. today that meant eight aircraft, nine ships and a british nuclear powered submarine. tomorrow, friday, the u.s. pinger locater arrives in this area. that s the device which when towed behind a ship should be able to detect any noise, any pings from a black box. but in order to do that, they need to massively narrow the search area.