A historic winter storm in south Alabama on Tuesday broke Mobile’s 130-year-old snowfall record and brought a rarely seen covering of snow to the beaches of Gulf Shores. But while it gave folks in Mobile an exceedingly uncommon opportunity to build snowmen,

Snow covered the sand at Orange Beach in Alabama on Tuesday, January 21, in scenes described as “history in the making”.This video shared to X by the City of Orange Beach shows the popular water sports hub barely recognisable as snow continued to fall.

An Extreme Cold Warning is in effect until 10 a.m. Wednesday, as wind chills could drop to as low as 3 degrees in some spots. Frostbite and hypothermia will occur if unprotected skin is exposed to these temperatures. An extended period of freezing temperatures could cause ruptured water pipes.

A major winter storm slammed the US Gulf Coast Tuesday, blanketing parts of a region largely unaccustomed to extreme winter weather with record-breaking snowfall.

It's been a while since it last snowed in Mobile, but snow is in the forecast for the city on Tuesday, and a winter storm watch is in effect. The photo above is from the Mobile office of the National Weather Service from a rare south Alabama snow in December of 1996. Joe Maniscalco/National Weather Service

The state has seen two outbreaks of winter weather that impacted north and south Alabama with several inches of snow.

For the second time in two weeks snow is falling in Alabama, but on this occasion the weather event is targeted in the southern portion of the state. And, it’s bringing a rare snowfall to the sugar white beaches of Gulf Shores.