The rare winter storm that is hitting the southern portion of the United States became historic Tuesday morning when the Lake Charles National Weather Service office issued its first-ever blizzard warning.

Though NWS forecasters are still collecting official snowfall counts, these reports give a good look at just how much snow Louisiana saw.

A National Weather Service office in Louisiana issued its first-ever blizzard warning on Tuesday amid snow and strong winds.

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.

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.

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 "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.

New Iberia and Lafayette saw the coldest temperatures on record Wednesday morning. Lake Charles saw the coldest temperatures ever recorded in January.

The National Weather Service in Lake Charles, LA, issued a blizzard warning about 4:15 a.m. Tuesday, January 21, 2025 for Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. It is the first blizzard warning ever issued by the Lake Charles weather service office.

The four corners of Louisiana – from Shreveport to Monroe and Lake Charles to New Orleans – were preparing Sunday for an unprecedented winter storm.

A cold front is expected to bring showers and thunderstorms to the area as early as Wednesday — but the bulk of activity is expected to hit Thursday afternoon. National Weather Service Lake Charles said their confidence is increasing that a few storms could become strong to severe,

Representatives with CenterPoint Entergy say the natural gas smell on Monday was due in part to the release of an odorant to help with leak detection.