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.

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.

Roughly 40 million people from Texas to the Carolinas are under winter weather alerts as a rare winter storm amid bone-chilling temperatures brings potentially historic snowfall to cities unused to harsh,

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.

A snowstorm warning was in effect for 31 million people - from southern Texas east through Georgia and north to the Carolinas and into Virginia - until Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service said.

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,