A historic winter storm brought several inches of snow to Southwest Louisiana. Tuesday was the third largest snowfall event in Lake Charles’ recorded history, with an official National Weather Service measurement of more than 5 inches.

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.

Though the snow is quickly melting across Southwest Louisiana, chilly temperatures will persist for another couple of nights. National Weather Service Lake Charles Meteorologist Donald Jones said temperatures will be in the mid-20s overnight into Friday morning followed by a lighter freeze Friday night into Saturday morning.

By Thursday, highs should warm a little more. Another weaker cold front will arrive Thursday night, so low temperatures still should fall below freezing, especially where there is still more snow on the ground. By Friday, temperatures may return to the 50’s for highs.

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

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

The cold temperatures are coming from a not uncommon expansion in the Polar Vortex, which are counter-clockwise rotating air currents that typically hang over the Arctic.

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.

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.

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.

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.