Coastal Alabama and the Florida Panhandle enjoyed a rare southern snowstorm Tuesday that delighted children with snow angels and powdery play in a scene felt plucked from a Hallmark Christmas movie. But the joy of tramping through fresh snow quickly gave way Wednesday to the icy realization that roads remain impassable,

Tuesday and Wednesday from Texas to Florida along the Gulf Coast will see extreme winter weather including snowfall and freezing rain. Significant snowfall and/or freezing rain accumulations can't be ruled out in Houston, New Orleans, and Tallahassee. pic.twitter.com/028Ndta2vl

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 used to hurricane dismissals than snow days.

Alabama is struggling to warm up after a major winter storm blew through the Yellowhammer State. Frigid temperatures are predicted to continue over the next few days, according to local meteorologists,

The National Weather Service said on Jan. 3, 2018, parts of north Florida, along with south Georgia, saw snow accumulate thanks to the first winter storm the Sunshine State had seen since 1989. Georgia of course saw the largest accumulations, up to 2 inches, but the snowfall in Florida was still measurable.

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.

The National Weather Service in Mobile said that as of 6:10 p.m. 7.5 inches of snow had fallen at its office in west Mobile. That breaks the old all-time record of 6 inches from 1895. That’s not the only record that was broken on Tuesday.

A major winter storm that slammed Texas and the northern Gulf Coast is spreading heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain across parts of the Florida panhandle and eastern Carolinas.

Arctic air grips the central and eastern U.S., bringing record-breaking cold, dangerous wind chills, and historic snowfall. Newsweek's live blog is closed.

Prior to that, the Milton Experimental Station recorded a historic snowfall 71 years ago; when Santa Rosa County set Florida's all-time 24-hour snowfall record with 4 inches, on March 6, 1954.

Florida is expected to get the most snowfall that it has seen in over seven decades as the South suffers through a "once in a generation" winter storm.