The weather cut a swathe of destruction across an area of the country that is home to more than 100 million people.

Residents are surveying damage from unusually vicious weather in multiple U.S. states where violent twisters, blinding dust storms and fast-moving wildfires decimated entire neighborhoods.

A powerful storm system that has been sweeping across the central and eastern U.S. has produced violent tornadoes, a dust storm, raging wildfires and even blizzard conditions, tragically leaving at least 36 people dead in its path.