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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Texas' Port of Galveston almost filed for bankruptcy in the 1990s. Its CEO credits the booming cruise industry for saving the port.

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