A powerful winter storm that dumped heavy snow and glazed roads with ice across much of Texas and Oklahoma lumbered eastward into southern U.S. states overnight, prompting governors to declare states of emergency and shuttering schools across the region.

Schools as far south as El Paso, Texas, closed due to a polar vortex that has brought historically low temperatures and snowfall to parts of the U.S.

A winter storm is moving across the southeastern portion of the U.S., bringing snow, sleet and other cold-weather conditions to a part of the nation not accustomed to coping with blustery temperatures.