Snow fell in Houston and prompted the first ever blizzard warnings for several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border. Snow covered the white-sand beaches of normally sunny vacation spots, including Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Pensacola Beach.

A historic winter storm swept across the Gulf Coast on Tuesday, bringing heavy snow and icy conditions to the Southeast while most of the country was facing dangerously cold temperatures from an arctic blast that arrived over the weekend.

ATLANTA >> An historic January storm dumped more deep snow along the Gulf Coast today after bringing Houston and New Orleans to a near standstill over the past two days and burying parts of Florida’s Panhandle with accumulations more typical of Chicago.

A rare frigid storm charged through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday, blanketing New Orleans and Houston with snow, closing highways, grounding nearly all flights and canceling school for millions of students more used to hurricane dismissals than snow days.

A strong winter storm blasting through the United States, including the Gulf Coast, is bringing the rare sight of snow and ice to northern Florida, and frigid rain to Tampa Bay.

As heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain hit parts of the Deep South, a blast of Arctic air plunged much of the Midwest and the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze.

Folks in northern Florida awoke to a winter wonderland Wednesday morning, after a rare frigid storm charged through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday.

A rare frigid storm charged through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday, blanketing New Orleans and Houston with snow.

A rare frigid storm charged through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday, blanketing New Orleans and Houston with snow that closed highways, grounded nearly all flights and canceled school for more than a million students more accustomed to hurricane dismissals than snow days.

ORLANDO, Fla. — The western panhandle, city of Milton in Santa Rosa County, received 10 inches of snow. Pensacola, along the Gulf coast, reached 9 inches of snow. The wind continues to be a factor as we head overnight; cold wind chill temperatures are expected in the 30s.

Almost exactly 24 hours after a winter storm brought snow, sleet and ice to much of the Big Bend and South Georgia, a large stretch of a major highway is set to be shut down.Interstate 10 from the Alabama and Florida State line in Pensacola to Exit 192 will close in both directions Wednesday at 7 p.