Folks from the Deep South often look at old black-and-white photographs from 1895 and talk about the time the Gulf Coast was blanketed in snow. But no one alive today could tell you exactly what it was like — until this week.

Thanks to social media and the news, we’re all flooded with fun reels, photos and stories of families playing in the snow. Cajuns are cutting capers in pirogues (basically kayaks) pulled by ATVs, taking rides in airboats over the fresh snow, throwing snowballs in the French Quarter of New Orleans, and even skiing down main streets. Sure, we don’t have hills or sleds, but we’ve got levees, inner tubes, crawfish trays, boogie boards, trash bags and waxed cardboard boxes — whatever works!

The internet is having a field day with dogs experiencing snow for the first time, families relaxing in hot tubs to enjoy the snow scenery, and adults googling “how to build a snowman.”

In New Orleans, seminarians are going sledding:

In Lafayette, cloistered Carmelite nuns are building snowmen:

At St. Catherine of Siena parish in Metairie, Louisiana, the Nashville Dominicans are throwing snowballs at their parish priest:

It’s Day 3 of this unexpected winter wonderland, and our entire region is under curfew with no road travel allowed. (Nobody here owns snow tires.) Louisiana — a subtropical paradise complete with palm trees, alligators and citrus — has become a frozen landscape. There are borrowed snowplows from Arkansas and salt sprinkled all over the bridges, and schools have been shut down all week.

I grew up in the mountains of Virginia, where snow was a familiar friend. Our children love to hear my stories of snow forts, maple snow taffy, and climbing mountains to sled down old logging roads. This week, they — along with the entire Gulf South — got to make memories of their own that they’d only heard about before.

This storm has already earned a few epic nicknames: “The Flurricane of 2025” and “The Sneauxmageddon.” Everyone knows they’re living through a week that will become part of family lore, and they’re savoring every moment of it. In many ways, it’s being treated just like a hurricane — checking on neighbors, making a big pot of gumbo, and then heading outside for fun once the worst of the storm passes. The only difference this time? There’s no clean-up crew for fallen trees or flooding. The snow will melt quickly when the Arctic outbreak recedes in a few days. By the weekend, all that will be left will be memories — and some very muddy boots.

The South isn’t quite sure how to handle snow, but we sure know how to make the most of it. From snowball fights to airboats gliding across the white landscape, this storm has been one for the history books — a reminder that even in a subtropical climate, God has a way of surprising us with unexpected gifts. The snow may be fleeting, but the memories of the snow of a lifetime will last forever.