Rare snowstorm sweeps across US south, hitting Florida

A rare winter storm is bringing snow and freezing rain to parts of the US deep south, closing highways and airports in Texas, prompting a blizzard warning in Louisiana, and shattering records in Florida.

At least nine people are thought to have died due to storm-related traffic accidents and cold exposure, as areas typically known for balmy winters are hit by ice and sleet, as well as snow.

In the country's north, parts of New York state are being hit by another storm that has already brought 18in (45cm) of snow.

More than1,600 flights within the US were cancelled on Wednesday morning, and 1,765 delayed, according to online tracker Flight Aware.

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Florida is recording the greatest amounts of snow in the state's history, with the National Weather Service (NWS) saying it had received at least 8in, double the record of 4in set in1954.

Snow has stopped falling on the western part of the Gulf Coast but the weather is still a concern for flights and highways throughout the region, the weather service said.

"These travel impacts may linger for several days given the historic heavy accumulations combined with frigid temperatures, as well as the lack of equipment for clearing roads," it said.

The storm is expected to continue moving through the panhandle and into South and North Carolina on Wednesday, even hitting the Outer Banks.

Along the Gulf coast more than 108,000 customers are without power, primarily in Georgia (44,391) and Florida (35,435), on Wednesday morning, according to Poweroutage.us

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a state of emergency in a dozen counties in western New York as communities face the snow and extreme cold. Some near Lake Ontario could experience 2ft to 3ft of snow.

The mayor of Buffalo, Christopher Scanlon, declared an additional emergency on his own, shuttering City Hall and closing Route 5, the Buffalo Skyway, because of blowing snow and other dangerous driving conditions.

Parts of Canada have also been hit by especially frigid winter weather, with extreme cold warnings throughout the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. With the wind chill, temperatures will be as low as -50C (-58F) in some areas.

In the US south, the highest snowfall total recorded by Tuesday afternoon local time was 10.5in in Rayne, Louisiana, according to reports from the NWS.

Parts of Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina had received 8in to 12in of snow by Wednesday morning, according to the NWS.

Governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, have also declared states of emergency in response to the unusual cold.

Temperatures are expected to fall well below January averages, and may surpass record lows stretching up from the coast into the Tennessee Valley.

The storm now hitting the US south began in Texas on Monday evening, and was forecast to spread eastward through Wednesday morning along Interstate 10, a major highway in the region.

State leaders and agencies scrambled to confront the atypical weather.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Florida's infrastructure was "designed differently" than in states that regularly see snow.

"We're not used to walking in a winter wonderland here in Florida," he said.

DeSantis, like North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, urged residents to stay home.

The extreme weather, part of a bitterly cold air mass that has descended on the south and eastern US, is forecast to linger over the next couple of days.

Around 40 million people, primarily across the southern US, were under some type of weather hazard, Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the NWS, told BBC's partner CBS News. Another 170 million people from the Rockies to points eastward were under an extreme weather warning or cold weather advisory.

The NWS cautioned that the rare storm could continue to cause "widespread" disruptions in both air and land travel for several days even after the snowfall stops.