Airports are readying for major disruptions in Texas, Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast before anticipated wintry blast.

HOUSTON (Reuters) -A rare winter storm churned across the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday, breaking snowfall records more than a century old in a southern region where flurries are unusual, as much of the United States remained in a dangerous deep freeze.

The amount of snow the Gulf Coast States received makes this weather system the worst winter storm in over 120 years. Before 120 years ago, record keeping was unreliable or not recorded at all.

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.

A winter storm prompted a National Weather Service office in Louisiana to issue a first-ever blizzard warning. The storm is causing dangerous conditions from Texas to North Carolina.

More than 220 million people across the United States are facing dangerous cold that will also open the door for a potentially historic and crippling winter storm that could deliver snow as far south as Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.

Snow and sleet started falling in Texas as officials begin to close schools and airports. Snow and ice could bring major travel disruptions and power outages from Texas to Florida.

Heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain are expected around the Deep South as a blast of Arctic air plunges much of the Midwest and the eastern US into a deep freeze.

Most of the United States is being assailed with extreme winter weather this week as Arctic air blasts south from Canada, snow tracks up the Northeast coast and a potentially crippling winter storm takes aim at the South.

Mapmakers and teachers are re-thinking what to call the gulf of water between Mexico, the United States and Cuba after President Donald Trump ordered it renamed from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

The season's latest winter storm could wreak havoc on air travel in the Northeast this weekend. Meanwhile, parts of Texas and the Gulf Coast are eyeing another potential winter storm.