Snow, sleet and Arctic winds have plunged the United States’ Deep South region into an unusual deep freeze, with airports, highways, schools and government offices closed across usually sunny southern states.

Having covered Texas and the northern Gulf Coast with record-breaking snow, the major winter storm moved eastwards on Wednesday, causing governors in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and even Florida – famously dubbed the Sunshine State – to declare states of emergency.

At least three people have died due to the extreme weather, including two in Austin, Texas, and another person in Georgia.

After being closed or suspending flights on Tuesday, Jacksonville Airport in Florida, Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans and both airports in Houston, Texas, were planning to reopen in the course of Wednesday.

But more than 1,300 flights to, from or within the US were canceled on Wednesday morning and more than 900 were delayed.

The airport in Charleston, South Carolina, was also closed, as was the massive 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) Ravenel Bridge that carries about 100,000 vehicles a day between Charleston and areas up the coast.

Unfamiliar winter wonderlands

Nevertheless, the rare cold weather also led to some unusual scenes across the regions as residents swapped sun loungers for toboggans and build snowmen rather than sandcastles.

Some of the heaviest snowfall was recorded in Mobile, Alabama, where authorities asked people to stay off roads which were covered in over five inches (13cm) of snow.

With experts predicting this winter storm could break the 130-year-old record for snow fall in the area, schools and some workplaces were also closed, giving people some spare time to have snowball fights instead.

In Tallahassee, Florida, which hasn’t seen snow since a light dusting in 2018, Lina Rojas said she had never seen anything like it.

“I don’t even know what to call it!” she said, as she wrapped up her dachshund Petunia in a warm dog-coat and put little mittens on her paws.

In the “Sunshine State,” inflatables are usually deployed in swimming pools or at the beach. But in Pensacola, they proved equally useful in the six-inch (15cm) deep snow at Bayview Park.

“Believe it or not, in the state of Florida we’re mobilizing snowplows,” said Governor Ron DeSantis as snow covered the white-sand beaches of popular summer vacation spots.

In Houston, people took advantage of the snow to go sledding on the banks of the Buffalo Bayou river, while unprecedented blizzard warnings were issued for several coastal counties near the Texas-Louisiana border.

It’s been more than a decade since snow last fell on New Orleans, but Tuesday’s snowfall set a new record.

Ten inches (25cm) of snow fell in some parts of the city, far surpassing the record of 2.7 inches (6.8 centimeters) set on New Year’s Eve, 1963.

“Wow, what a snow day!,” the weather agency said in a social media post. “It’s safe to say this was a historic snowfall for much of the area.”

In downtown New Orleans, the city’s central Bourbon Street became a location for urban skiing, while priests and nuns engaged in a snowball fight outside a suburban church.

Others went sledding down the snow-covered Mississippi River levees on kayaks, cardboard boxes and inflatable reptiles.

“This is a white-out in New Orleans, this is a snow-a-cane,” said local high-school teacher David Delio, as his two daughters glided down a levee on a yoga mat and a boogie board. “We’ve had tons of hurricane days but never a snow day.”

mf/jcg(AP, Reuters)