A National Weather Service office in Louisiana issued its first-ever blizzard warning on Tuesday amid snow and strong winds.

For example, Lake Charles, La., along the Gulf Coast, showed snowfall rates of over 1 inch per hour this morning and early afternoon and visibility down to a quarter of a mile with blowing snow. This is one of the reasons why blizzard warnings were posted briefly for that region earlier.

Snow totals were rivalling all-time records. Officials were urging residents to take precautions and stay off roads.

ATLANTA — 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.

The Interstate 10 closure spanned nearly the entire state, ending west of the Mississippi state line east of New Orleans. Meanwhile, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) had deployed crews traveling in both directions to treat the interstate's surfaces in an effort to restore normal traffic flow.

The cold temperatures are coming from a not uncommon expansion in the Polar Vortex, which are counter-clockwise rotating air currents that typically hang over the Arctic.

Schools are closed, snow is falling in places where it usually doesn't and freezing temperatures are sweeping across the South as a winter storm tracks across states including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,

Interstate 10 reopened to westbound traffic from I-49 in Lafayette to the Texas border, the Department of Transportation and Development announced mid-afternoon Wednesday. The update comes after a historic winter storm brought several inches of snow to the gulf coast and shut down most of I-10 between Texas and Mississippi.

Local interstates and elevated bridges will close early Tuesday morning as freezing temperatures and snow impact the New Orleans area. Interstate 10 will be closed at 4 a.m. in Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes, according to DOTD.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said the state is facing potential record snowfall that could close Mississippi River bridges from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

A winter storm that rolled through Southeast Texas and the U.S. Gulf Coast dumped multiple inches of snow on Tuesday across a region already gripped by freezing temperatures. How much snow did Houston get and how does that compare to the snowfalls in New Orleans and across the deep South and Gulf Coast?

Dangerous cold temperatures remained across Oklahoma, with the lowest temperatures in nearly four years hitting the state.