Areas of Southwest Louisiana broke all-time record lows overnight Tuesday that dated back to the late 1800s. “It was quite the historic event for us,” said National Weather Service Lake Charles Storm Warning Meteorologist Doug Cramer.

By Thursday, highs should warm a little more. Another weaker cold front will arrive Thursday night, so low temperatures still should fall below freezing, especially where there is still more snow on the ground. By Friday, temperatures may return to the 50’s for highs.

The cold temperatures are coming from a not uncommon expansion in the Polar Vortex, which are counter-clockwise rotating air currents that typically hang over the Arctic.

Louisiana isn’t known for extreme cold weather—but that changed Tuesday, when the National Weather Service issued its first-ever blizzard warning for much of the state.

A "Freeze Warning" is in effect across southern Arkansas, northern Louisiana, Oklahoma and eastern Texas, as well as in small parts of Arizona, California and Florida, with temperatures falling as low as 27, and wind chills expected to feel as cold as low as 13 in some areas.

Louisiana residents young and old raced outside Tuesday to enjoy an extremely rare snow day, celebrating the chance to pull out their gloves, scarves and hats from the back of their closets as they hurried to play in the several inches of snow that poured down across the state.

A storm chaser managed to capture two vastly different storms slamming the same spot in Lake Charles, Louisiana, over four years apart, footage posted on Tuesday, January 21, shows. Chad Casey captured footage of Hurricane Delta hitting this spot in downtown Lake Charles October,

After an extremely impressive snow event and winter fun across SWLA, arctic air and icy roads continue to be a problem.

In the last of a series of calls held by the office to help local officials make decisions on closures and emergency operations, Cramer pointed to some data showing “quite the historic event” in terms of weather.

A winter storm was on a track to sweep through Texas and Louisiana, across the Gulf Coast and deep into Florida, significant snow and ice in tow.