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.

Around 40 million people in the U.S. are under a winter storm warning from an unusual blast of severe winter weather.

A historic, dangerous and deadly winter storm stretching over 1,500 miles is blanketing the southern U.S. with heavy snow, including areas of the Texas and Louisiana Gulf coasts under their first-ever Blizzard Warnings.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A major winter storm that slammed Texas and blanketed the northern Gulf Coast with record-breaking snow moved east Wednesday, spreading heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain across parts of the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and eastern Carolinas.

A historic and deadly winter storm that stretches over 1,500 miles blanketed the southern U.S. on Tuesday with historic snow totals, including the first-ever Blizzard Warning for the Gulf Coast.

Snow, sleet and freezing rain are set to fall across parts of southern Texas, southern Georgia and northern Florida as the storm heads east Tuesday.

A winter storm dumped snow across the Deep South Tuesday, leaving areas that rarely see this kind of weather with dangerous travel conditions, widespread airport closures and snow days. Here’s what it looked like from Texas across Louisiana,