A major winter storm slammed the US Gulf Coast Tuesday, blanketing parts of a region largely unaccustomed to extreme winter weather with record-breaking snowfall.

Weather forecasters and public agencies issued health and power loss warnings Tuesday as a “rare winter storm" gripped parts of the southern and eastern United States."A bitterly cold airmass will remain in place for much of the South and eastern U.

Alabama continued to deal with snow on the ground on Thursday, two days after a historic Gulf Coast snowstorm. About 3 inches of snow was left on the ground Thursday morning at the National Weather Service office in Mobile. That’s nothing compared with the 7.5 inches the office had at the peak of the storm on Tuesday.