A major storm spread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain across the southern United States on Wednesday, breaking snow records and treating the region to unaccustomed perils and wintertime joy.

All Houston airports will reopen Wednesday after shutting down on Jan. 21 as a winter storm barreled through South Texas.

Part of a legal description of a boundary line of Dixie County, for instance, says it goes "southerly down the thread of the main stream of said Suwannee River to the Gulf of Mexico; thence along said Gulf of Mexico, including the waters of said gulf within the jurisdiction of the State of Florida, to the mouth of the Steinhatchee River."

A powerful Arctic blast is bringing life-threatening cold to the Midwest and Northeast, while a rare winter storm blankets the Gulf Coast.

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Forecasters said it was too early to tell whether the ice and snow would approach or beat Tallahassee’s all-time snowfall record of 2.8 inches set in 1958.

Myriad winter weather alerts and warnings remained in place across the U.S. on Tuesday as multiple states battled storms.

The National Weather Service issued an updated winter storm warning at 10:38 p.m. EST on Tuesday valid from Wednesday 7 a.m. EST until Thursday 1 a.m. EST for Leelanau, Benzie and Manistee counties.

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.

The snow storm could hit over a dozen states through Wednesday, including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

A rare winter storm across North Florida is causing historic snow in Pensacola and the Panhandle. See striking images of how residents reacted.