Powerful winds tore through the New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle on Friday, with gusts approaching 100 mph in some places.

Extreme winds flipped trucks and kicked up blinding dust, shutting down highways in Texas and causing issues across New Mexico and Oklahoma. With visibility near zero and conditions worsening, officials feared more pile-ups would begin to choke roadways.

Strong winds in the Texas Panhandle are being blamed for several car crashes and downed power lines. Gusts are blowing faster than 80 miles per hour in some places. The dust kicked up by the winds are expected to reach North Texas.

The National Weather Service issued multiple tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings early Saturday for areas in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana and Texas.

At least three people have died as a powerful system of storms sweeps across a wide swathe of the central and southern of the United States, with another three killed in vehicle crashes as blinding winds whipped through Texas and Oklahoma.

High winds and dry weather fueled wildfires in Oklahoma and Texas, with winds so strong they toppled several semis.

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center warned of "near historic" fire conditions in the Plains.

Experts reported that the most likely place for a wildfire to spark is an area extending into north Texas across central Oklahoma into southeast Kansas. It was reported that winds, in extreme cases, c