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.

A rare and potentially historic winter storm is bringing heavy snow to Texas and the Gulf Coast while most of the country is facing dangerously cold temperatures from an arctic blast that arrived over the weekend.

A rare winter storm churned across the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday, bringing heavy snow, ice and wind gusts to a region where flurries are unusual, while much of the United States remained in a deep freeze.