A cross-country storm is strengthening as it moves over the central United States Friday and pounding the region with damaging hurricane-force wind gusts that are creating a blinding dust storm and fanning flames amid a “catastrophic” fire risk.

The setup Friday through the weekend is a dangerous one in parts of the South, Midwest and East. Some tornadoes could be strong and widespread damaging winds are also a major threat.

Severe thunderstorm outlooks issued by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center can show a threat level from 1 to 5. They are used to show how widespread and intense severe weather could be on a given day.

The Storm Prediction Center has shifted the widespread severe weather threat just a little to the northeast, putting the very southwest corner of Lower Michigan in the chance of damaging wind gusts and even a strong tornado.

Strong tornadoes, winds gusting over 70 mph and destructive hail are possible.

Weather forecasters warn about a major multiple-day outbreak of severe weather that includes multiple strong tornadoes from the Mississippi Valley to the Gulf Coast, Great Lakes and Atlantic coast through the weekend.

Residents along Glencannon Drive were expecting rain. But instead they got a tornado that downed trees and damaged several homes.

An EF0 tornado touched down in Los Angeles County early Thursday morning, causing damage to a Pico Rivera neighborhood, the National Weather Service said.

The tornado, creating gusts of up 85 mph, left a trail 80 yards wide and a mile long, damaging homes, plowing over trees, taking down power lines and rupturing water pipes, authorities said. It hit a mile west of the 605 Freeway.

A major storm continued to wallop much of Southern California on Thursday morning, bringing evacuation warnings, fears of mudslides and heavy mountain snow.

California braced for the arrival of a massive storm on Wednesday, evacuating residents in areas at risk of mudslides and debris flows.