It's called snow, something residents of North Florida hadn't seen in almost three decades until Wednesday, and it is part of a deep-freeze striking the entire US East Coast. The US National Weather Service warned that a major winter storm would bring heavy snow and ice, from Florida in the southeast up to New England and the Northeast on Wednesday and Thursday.

New York City was under a winter storm watch, with between three and six inches (8-15 centimeters) of snow expected from Wednesday night through Thursday. Tallahassee, Florida's capital in the far north of the "Sunshine State," awoke Wednesday to a dusting of 0.1 inches of snow, the first significant measurement since 1989, according to the Weather Channel.

Floridians, more accustomed to hurricanes than this odd white substance, rushed to publish on social media their photos of snow covering their warm-weather flip-flop footwear and outdoor swimming pools. snowmageddon, they called it on Twitter.

The storm has already led to the closure of roads in northern Florida and southeastern Georgia, where governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency in the coastal area.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2018