Deep South braces for a rare winter storm threatening heavy snow, sleet and ice Millions of people across the northern Gulf Coast braced Tuesday for a rare winter storm that's expected to scatter heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain around the Deep South as a blast of Arctic air plunges much of the eastern U.S. into a deep freeze.
Around 40 million people, primarily across the southern U.S. from Texas to Florida, were under some type of weather hazard, including more than 21 million under a winter storm warning, said meteorologist Marc Chenard with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
Elsewhere, the East Coast endured a thick blanket of snow while people from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine shivered in bitterly cold temperatures from the frigid arctic air mass that sent temperatures plunging well below normal Monday.
The National Weather Service forecast between 3 and 7 inches (7.5 to 15 centimeters) of snow and sleet for parts of southern Mississippi and southeast Louisiana, including New Orleans, heading into Tuesday.
In Texas, both Houston airports announced flight operations would be suspended starting Tuesday in expectation of hazardous conditions from the severe winter weather taking aim at a huge swath of the South.
