A major winter storm slammed the US Gulf Coast Tuesday, blanketing parts of a region largely unaccustomed to extreme winter weather with record-breaking snowfall.

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.

The heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain hitting parts of the Deep South came as a blast of Arctic air plunged much of the Midwest and the eastern US into a deep freeze.