cnn meteorologist alexandra steel says the chance for a catastrophe like north ridge exists anywhere a fault line is present. >> our planet is constantly moving and it's composed of enormous rock that's slowly moving underneath our feet. when they rub and touch and crack, then there's a massive release of energy. that's an earthquake. >> reporter: the big one is unpredictable? >> in the last 100 years, we can detect them, we know their origin, magnitude, but we don't know when they will happen. >> reporter: while scientists can't predict the big one, that hasn't stopped some from imagining the doomsday scenario. california has a 46% chance of a 7.0 in the next 30 years. >> the waves travel through that corridor towards los angeles and essentially guide it into the sedimentary base that underlies los angeles. once they're in that basin, they reverberate, they get amplified and cause stronger shaking. >> reporter: the scale of disaster that hopefully won't become a reality any time soon. >> when we come back here, the government in malaysia has seen much criticism of its ability to han

. >> let's check with meteorologist alexandra steele.h area? >> on a front, this move, 700 meters north, both meteorologically and in terms of oceanography is beneficial. what they need is visual confirmations. and the weather has been so poor it's hard to do that let me show you what we've got. here's the indian ocean. it's kind of like a "y" divided up in three quadrants and tectonics, and the plates. things rotate counterclockwise. there's the old search area, it's right along the latitude of the 40s we call that the rolling 40s. because at this latitude, you can see, these are the currents. the waves are strong. the waves are high. the currents are voracious, and big storms can develop. this move, 700 miles north, the currents aren't as strong. wave heights alone, on average, in this new area, are about 60, compared to the old area, 13 to 19 feet on average. so kind of the wave height alone allow for visual observation, certainly to be easier if you can see any material. also, of course, the depth of the water, and the weather, along

cnn's alexandra steel explains how the weather could impact this week's search. >> there is the search coast of australia. the size ofmexico. and within it clouds and wind. this is an active part of the country that the storms come through. nothing to stop them and it is so fluid out here. wind speeds 30, 40 mile per hour wind gusts looking out into the ocean and watching the storms roll through. monday you can see we have rough weather. tuesday we'll hold off. wednesday bad weather but here comes thursday a break in the action. and watching this low pressure. it holds off for friday and saturday and as we het ad into monday and tuesday the storm system sweeps in. that is the way it goes. >> each day brings new questions about the mystery of flight 370 we appreciate the ones you have been sending in. we are going to bring our panel back in right now. aviatifviation analyst and tom s and miles o'brien. jim, i want to start with you. this question from a viewer named tower, how many sorties out of his seat does each pilot get on a flight like this and how much sleen did sleep did the pil

cnn meteorologist alexandra steele says the chance far catastrophe line of scrimmage northridge existsnywhere a fault plane is present. >> our surface is constantly moving and it's composed of enormous rock that's slowly moving underneath our feet. when they rub and touch and crash against each other or crack, then there's this massive release of energy and that's an earthquake. >> reporter: we still can't predict the big one. that's unpredictable. >> unpredictable. many the last 100 years we can detect them, we know their origin, their magnitude, but up with thing yet we don't know is when they will happen. >> while scientists can't predict the big one, that hasn't stopped some from imagining a doomsday scenario. california has a 46% magnitude 7.5 or greater. it would likely hit southern california, a recent virtual earthquake study by stanford university tried to envision what would happen if the big one did hit. >> the waves travel through that corridor towards los angeles and are essentially guided into the sedimentary basin that underlies los angeles. once they're in that basin, t

alexandra steele says that's going to change.ow does rough weather affect the search effort and debris field? >> i was doing conversion when alexander was talking about the sea state. he was talking about routinely in the winter 12 foot seas. 12 foot seas, it's very difficult to operate. you can imagine a wave bearing down on you at that height trying to put in some sort of submersible device that would listen for a pinging noise. that's all but impossible. that also, of course, makes it difficult for the air crews to, you know, identify anything in the churn, as it were. so it becomes, you know, pretty much impractical and really frankly dangerous to search under conditions like that. god forbid something gets hurt in the effort to find this wreckage. there is a, you know, it's a difficult balance given the emotions and the stakes for the families. but at a certain point, mother nature is going to win. >> yeah. and, you know, bobbie, it's not just what we see on the surface, the rain, the clouds. it's below the surface. as a nav

cnn meteorologist alexandra steele says the chance for a catastrophe like north ridge exists whereverent. >> constantly moving and it's composed of enormous rock that's slowly moving underneath our feet. when they rub and touch and crash against each other or crack, then there is there is this massive release of energy and an earthquake. >> reporter: but the big one is unpredictable. >> in the last 100 years we can detect them and know their origin and magnitude, but one thing yet we don't know is when they will happen. >> reporter: scientists still can't predict the big one, that hasn't stopped some from imagining the dooms day scenario. california has a 40% chance of a magnitude 7.5 or larger and that it would likely hit southern california. a recent earthquake study tried to envision what would happen if the big one did hit. >> the waves travel through that corridor towards los angeles and are essentially guided into the basin that underlies los angeles. once they're in the basin, they reverberate and get amplified and cause stronger shaking. >> reporter: the scale of disaster that

meteorologist alexandra steel talks to us more about that.ompare now to the old search location? >> you know, they're much more beneficial on really three note, weather, water, and waves. and beneficial is the wrong word. it's more like less detrimental. let me show you. this was the old search area. and the key thing here is what we call the roaring 40s which is the 40-degree latitude mark. and there we have very strong westerlies, big storms, big wind, big waves. and the storms move through completely uni'munincumbered. the new area, the weather here is certainly a lot easier in terms of the waves. on average here, wave height in the new are, about six feet. on average farther south, 700 miles south, they're about 16 to 19 feet. big difference when you're out there on the water and white caps. so also in terms of the water, the depth of the water, farther south it's a lot less chartered, a lot less mapped. so it's really as we look toward the farther northern area we know the topography of sea surface and below the water much better. here's

alexandra steele is following it for us now. alexandra what are we looking at?ie, exactly right. a tornado warning has been issued. either doppler radar indicating rotation. in this case in central florida, national weather service meteorologist melbourne, ice lated severe storms saying there's a potential for rotation. a look where it is. it is central florida. tornado warning for central brevard, southeast orange and northeast osceola counties. this is going from now until 3:10 at this point. these storms are moving eastward at about 40 miles per hour. tornado watch issued. you can see, this is the watch delineated here from tampa and including all of central florida saying the potential is there for tornadoes. you can see this very strong line, but here in this purple, this is tornado warning, and this is quite different. more severe, and for a shorter period of time looking out. in this case, an hour, actually. so you can see. st. cloud, merit island, some of these cities kind of in this, cape canaveral. big cities. also the orlando international airport. ca