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.

As heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain hit parts of the Deep South, a blast of Arctic air plunged much of the Midwest and the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze.

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.