The death toll rose to 20 as severe storms and several tornadoes ripped through the central United States, leaving millions in the path of destruction Saturday, officials said.

Twelve of the fatalities were reported in Missouri, including a man and woman who were found dead in the Bakersfield area of Ozark County as it was “severely impacted by tornadoes, thunderstorms, and large hail,” according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Gov. Mike Kehoe updated the media Saturday, KFVS reported. 

Six died in Wayne County, located in the Ozark foothills. One person was killed and several others injured in Butler County when a tornado ripped apart multiple buildings in the city, including a supermarket and a school.

Authorities said a woman in St. Louis County was also found dead in her backyard from a suspected storm-related electrocution. 

The raging storm also caused extensive damage — including fallen trees and downed power lines — across the southern portion of the state, officials said.

Three people were confirmed dead in Independence County, Arkansas, with 29 injuries reported across eight other counties, according to the state emergency management division.

Another three people died in car crashes when a dust storm whipped up in the Texas Panhandle, including in one pileup that involved an estimated 38 cars.

“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” said Sgt. Cindy Barkley of the state’s department of public safety, calling the near-zero visibility a nightmare.

“We couldn’t tell that they were all together until the dust kind of settled.”

Meteorologists predicted that wind gusts would whip up to 80 mph from the Canadian border to Texas, sparking blizzard conditions in the north and wildfire risks in the south.

The high winds Saturday overturned tractor-trailers and continued to fuel the more than 130 wildfires that have broken out across Oklahoma since Friday afternoon — fires that have consumed a dozen homes in Mannford, NBC reported.

In Texas, one fire scorched an estimated 32 square miles in Roberts County, Friday, while a second 60 miles south ate away at 4 miles.

States of emergency have been declared in Georgia and Arkansas.

More than 300,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana lost power as the storms wreaked havoc, according to poweroutage.us.

“This storm has it all,” Bill Bunting, of the NOAA and the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center, told FOX Weather.

In Texas, one fire scorched an estimated 32 square miles in Roberts County, Friday, while a second 60 miles south ate away at 4 miles.

“This storm has it all,” Bill Bunting, of the NOAA and the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center, told FOX Weather.

“The moisture is plentiful, and our concern is that all of these ingredients – wind shear, moisture, and lift – will combine to produce a highly explosive and potentially deadly storm, beginning this afternoon, continuing overnight, and extending into Saturday as the system moves south and east.”

The severe weather event stretched from outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, to New Orleans, Louisiana.

A “large and dangerous tornado” was set to impact three Mississippi counties Saturday afternoon, with officials warning residents to seek immediate shelter.

More than 150 million people are at a heightened risk of severe weather, with Saturday anticipated to be the most dangerous day of the ongoing event.

The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center placed half a dozen states under a “Particularly Dangerous Situation” Tornado Watch, directing residents in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Western Georgia, Tennessee, and the Florida Panhandle to seek shelter in a basement immediately as soon as a tornado warning is issued.

The biggest threat will begin across eastern Louisiana and Mississippi during the late morning on Saturday before spreading into Alabama and western parts of the Florida Panhandle and Georgia.

The National Weather Services warns the severe wind and tornadoes could result in potentially fatal flash flooding across the south.

The storm has been listed as a Level 5 out of 5 on the severe storm threat level, impacting 2.7 million people in major cities like Birmingham, Alabama; Jackson, Mississippi; Tuscaloosa and Hoover in Alabama; and Hattiesburg, Mississippi. 

Cities such as New Orleans, Louisiana; and Birmingham, Alabama, are under a Level 4 out of 5 risk, indicating a high likelihood of supercell thunderstorms capable of producing tornadoes and damaging winds, Fox Weather reported.

By Sunday, the storm will have made its way east, with the threat of tornadoes confined to the Virginia coast and in the Carolinas.