The National Weather Service issued tornado watches for more than 2 million people on Saturday. An "outbreak" of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms is expected through Saturday night in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, western Georgia, southern Tennessee, the Florida Panhandle and southern Arkansas.

A line of severe thunderstorms, the first extreme weather event of the year, will hit the Chicago area around midnight Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

At least 12 fatalities have been reported in Missouri, according to the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency. The deaths come as a massive storm system moving across the country unleashed winds that damaged buildings, whipped up deadly dust storms and fanned more than 100 wildfires.

Whipping winds moved east into the Mississippi Valley and Deep South, with at least two people killed in Missouri. Three people died in car crashes during a dust storm in the Texas Panhandle.

A sweeping storm system moving across the U.S. threatens to bring tornadoes, blizzards and possibly wildfires to different regions of the country

A powerful spring storm is rapidly approaching central Illinois with several counties already under a tornado watch.

At 5:58 p.m. on Saturday, the NWS Morristown TN issued a tornado watch in effect until Sunday at 1 a.m. for Cherokee County.

Significant weather will work its way through metro Atlanta and north Georgia Saturday night into Sunday morning. Western Georgia is expected to see the highest tornado threat and many areas are in a 4 out 5 risk.