A cross-country tornado snow blitz threatens 100 million Americans with the ‘most severe’ storm outbreak of the year. ‘Dangerous, damaging and life-threatening’ weather conditions spanning half a million square miles will smash the US into mid-month.

On Thursday, the storm was bringing heavy snow and strong winds to the Sierra Nevada and heavy rainfall over parts of coastal southern California.

A huge storm system crossing the U.S. threatens to unleash tornadoes Friday in the Mississippi Valley, blizzards in the northern Plains and dry, gusty conditions in Texas and Oklahoma that pose an extreme risk of wildfires.

More than 100 million people in the U.S. will be in the path of an intense March storm starting Friday as the sprawling multi-day system threatens fires, blizzards, tornadoes, and flooding as it tracks eastward across the Great Plains.