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

A rare winter storm charging through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday has closed highways and airports and prompted the first blizzard warning for southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana.

A rare frigid storm is charging through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast, blanketing New Orleans and Houston with snow, closing highways and grounding nearly all flights.

WATCH: One local woman captured attention on social media by throwing a pot of hot water into the air, creating a dazzling cloud of steam and ice crystals.

From Houston to Pensacola, nearly 1,000 miles of shoreline along the U.S. Gulf Coast was blanketed in as much as a foot of snow this week. The storm shattered century-old records and left cities like New Orleans,

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.