A powerful and rare winter storm swept across the South on Tuesday, bringing the first-ever Blizzard Warning to the Gulf Coast and blasting communities from Texas to Florida to the Carolinas with record-shattering snow that snarled travel and brought daily life to a halt.

A rare winter storm churned through Florida, Texas and other parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast. It brought unusually cold temperatures and record snowfalls, causing travel delays and deadly road conditions.

Snowfall records were threatened, and in many cases broken, in states like Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.