Monster storm across US sparks threat of tornadoes, fire, killing at least 16

Authorities said on Friday that three people were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.

The threat of violent tornadoes in parts of the US proved deadly as well as destructive as whipping winds moved east into the Mississippi Valley and Deep South on Saturday.

Earlier, the Missouri State Highway Patrol reported that two adults were killed in the Bakersfield area in Ozark County and multiple people were injured. Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County, Missouri, said one person was killed early Saturday after a tornado ripped apart a home roughly 177 kilometres east of Bakersfield.

“It was unrecognizable to be a home. Just a debris field," Akers said, describing the scene that confronted rescuers when they arrived. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls." Rescuers managed to save a woman in the home, Akers said.

The deaths come as a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that triggered deadly dust storms and fanned more than 100 wildfires.

Extreme weather conditions — including hurricane-force winds — are forecast to affect an area home to more than 100 million people.

Winds gusting up to 130 kph were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier areas to the south.

Three people were killed Friday in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo County in the Texas Panhandle, according to Sgt Cindy Barkley of the state's department of public safety. One pileup involved an estimated 38 cars.

“It's the worst I've ever seen,” Barkley said, calling the near-zero visibility a nightmare. “We couldn't tell that they were all together until the dust kind of settled.” Five people were injured in Cave City, Arkansas, which was placed under a state of emergency until further notice, Mayor Jonas Anderson said on social media early Saturday.

“Electricity infrastructure has been decimated and will remain off for an unknown period of time,” he said.

Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state. The State Patrol said winds were so strong that they toppled several tractor-trailers.

“This is terrible out here,” said Charles Daniel, a truck driver hauling a 48-foot trailer along Interstate 40 in western Oklahoma. “There's a lot of sand and dirt in the air. I'm not pushing it over 55 mph. I'm scared it will blow over if I do.” Experts say it's not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.

“What's unique about this one is its large size and intensity,” said Bill Bunting of the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Centre in Norman, Oklahoma. “And so what that is doing is producing really substantial impacts over a very large area.” Tornadoes hit amid storm outbreak The Storm Prediction Centre said fast-moving storms could spawn twisters and hail as large as baseballs, but the greatest threat would come from straight-line winds near or exceeding hurricane force, with gusts of 160 kph possible.

The centre said parts of Mississippi including Jackson and Hattiesburg and areas of Alabama including Birmingham and Tuscaloosa would be at a high risk. Severe storms and tornadoes were also possible across eastern Louisiana, western Georgia, central Tennessee and the western Florida Panhandle.

Wildfires break out amid dry, gusty conditions Wildfires in the Southern Plains threatened to spread rapidly amid warm, dry weather and strong winds, and evacuations were ordered Friday for some communities in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and New Mexico.

A blaze in Roberts County, Texas, northeast of Amarillo, quickly blew up from less than about 2 square kilometres to an estimated 85 square kilometres, the Texas A&M University Forest Service said on X. Crews stopped its advance by Friday evening.

About 90 kilometres to the south, another fire grew to about 10 square kilometres before its advance was halted in the afternoon.

High winds also knocked out power to more than 2,60,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, according the website poweroutage.us.

Blizzard warnings in Northern Plains The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 7.6 to 15.2 centimetres were expected, with up to a foot or 30 centimetres possible.

Winds gusting to 97 kph were expected to cause whiteout conditions.