A winter storm prompted a National Weather Service office in Louisiana to issue a first-ever blizzard warning. The storm is causing dangerous conditions from Texas to North Carolina.

A rare winter storm churned across the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday, breaking snowfall records more than a century old in a southern region where flurries are unusual, as much of the United States remained in a dangerous deep freeze.

A rare and potentially historic winter storm is bringing heavy snow to Texas and the Gulf Coast while nearly 220 million people across 40 states are facing dangerously cold temperatures from an arctic blast that arrived over the weekend.