Historic winter storm shatters records across the South, leaving millions grappling with extreme cold and unprecedented snowfall into the weekend.

Snow has begun to fall in Florida as a chilling winter storm continues to make its way past the South. Traffic cameras from the Florida Department of Transportation showed heavy snow along I-10 in Escambia County,

Milton saw 10 inches of snow - and Pensacola 8.9 - in a historic winter storm storm that shattered the previous 130-year record.

An historic January storm dumped more deep snow along the U.S. Gulf Coast on Wednesday after bringing Houston and New Orleans to a near standstill over the past two days and burying parts of Florida's Panhandle with accumulations more typical of Chicago.

I-10 from the Alabama and Florida State Line in Pensacola to Exit 192 in Madison County will close in both directions Wednesday at 7 p.m., according to Florida 511. Authorities expect ice and snow to freeze on the roadways creating dangerous conditions.

Snow totals in Louisiana have broken records. Parts of Florida, Texas and Georgia have also accumulated several inches of snow.

The National Weather Service said on Jan. 3, 2018, parts of north Florida, along with south Georgia, saw snow accumulate thanks to the first winter storm the Sunshine State had seen since 1989. Georgia of course saw the largest accumulations, up to 2 inches, but the snowfall in Florida was still measurable.

Officials are asking Panhandle residents to avoid being on the roads. Freezing temperatures mean icy, dangerous conditions.

Frozen temperatures created an icy mess overnight in Northwest Florida, but as the sun rose Thursday some roads and bridges began to reopen.

Trucker Alexis Barnett was trying to make the trip Wednesday from Destin to Sarasota when Florida shut down I-10 and re-routed traffic onto Highway 90. That’s when the driving started getting treacherous. “Going up the hills and down the hills, it was nothing but black ice. Just a sheet of ice,” she said.

A powerful and rare winter storm swept across the South on Tuesday, bringing the first-ever Blizzard Warning to the Gulf Coast and blasting communities from Texas to Florida to the Carolinas with record-shattering snow that snarled travel and brought daily life to a halt.