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.

Snow covered the white-sand beaches of normally sunny vacation spots, including Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Pensacola Beach, Florida. 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 U.S. into a deep freeze.

Writing this forecast as a snow lover feels like I’m writing weather fanfic, but the reality may be ones for the records books.

The storm prompted the first-ever blizzard warnings for several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border, and snowplows were at the ready in the Florida Panhandle.

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,