Snow and sleet started falling in Texas as officials begin to close schools and airports. Snow and ice could bring major travel disruptions and power outages from Texas to Florida.

South-central Georgia and Florida's Big Bend area could see ice totals between a tenth and a quarter of an inch. Tallahassee could get a dusting of snow and a quarter of an inch of ice − enough to make roads impassable and knock out power lines from the winter storm forecast to hit the area.

Most of the United States is being assailed with extreme winter weather this week as Arctic air blasts south from Canada, snow tracks up the Northeast coast and a potentially crippling winter storm takes aim at the South.

Around 40 million people in the U.S. are under a winter storm warning from an unusual blast of severe winter weather.