Historic winter storm shatters records across the South, leaving millions grappling with extreme cold and unprecedented snowfall into the weekend.

Milton saw 10 inches of snow - and Pensacola 8.9 - in a historic winter storm storm that shattered the previous 130-year record.

A rare frigid storm charged through Texas and the northern Gulf Coast on Tuesday, blanketing New Orleans and Houston with snow, closing highways, grounding nearly all flights and canceling school for millions of students more used to hurricane dismissals than snow days.

An historic January storm dumped more deep snow along the U.S. Gulf Coast on Wednesday after bringing Houston and New Orleans to a near standstill over the past two days and burying parts of Florida's Panhandle with accumulations more typical of Chicago.

I-10 from the Alabama and Florida State Line in Pensacola to Exit 192 in Madison County will close in both directions Wednesday at 7 p.m., according to Florida 511. Authorities expect ice and snow to freeze on the roadways creating dangerous conditions.

Snow totals in Louisiana have broken records. Parts of Florida, Texas and Georgia have also accumulated several inches of snow.

The National Weather Service said on Jan. 3, 2018, parts of north Florida, along with south Georgia, saw snow accumulate thanks to the first winter storm the Sunshine State had seen since 1989. Georgia of course saw the largest accumulations, up to 2 inches, but the snowfall in Florida was still measurable.

Interstate 10 from the Alabama/Florida state line almost to Tallahassee has been closed since Wednesday evening. Conditions have now improved.

Trucker Alexis Barnett was trying to make the trip Wednesday from Destin to Sarasota when Florida shut down I-10 and re-routed traffic onto Highway 90. That’s when the driving started getting treacherous. “Going up the hills and down the hills, it was nothing but black ice. Just a sheet of ice,” she said.

Frozen temperatures created an icy mess overnight in Northwest Florida, but as the sun rose Thursday some roads and bridges began to reopen.

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.