Syrian refugee children stand at the entrance of their living quarters at a camp in the Bekaa Valley. AFP/Getty Images

A Syrian refugee tries to move a washing machine standing outside her tent to a more sheltered place at a camp in the Bekaa Valley. AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugees pose in the snow in front of their makeshift home in Ankara. Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images

A Syrian refugee, wearing sandals, stands in the snow in front of her makeshift home in Ankara, Turkey. Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian refugees run for cover from snow during a winter storm in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley Wednesday, as the region endures harsh winter weather. Mohamed Azakir/Reuters

A blustery storm dropped torrential rain and snow on Lebanon and Jordan on Wednesday, as aid agencies scrambled to distribute desperately needed winter supplies like blankets and plastic tarps to Syrian refugees who have sought safe haven in those countries.

Temperatures dropped below freezing in northern Lebanon and some areas of the Bekaa Valley, which is dotted with informal refugee settlements made largely from tents not built to withstand the harsh weather.

The winter weather heaped another layer of misery on the already grim existence of many of the estimated 1.4 million Syrians in Lebanon who fled the civil war raging in their homeland.

"We are extremely concerned for the refugees this winter that promises to be very harsh," Dana Sleiman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told The Associated Press.

Since the conflict began in March 2011, more than 2 million Syrians — at least half of them children — have fled the violence in their homeland to neighboring countries like Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq. Many will spend the winter in flimsy tents, often with only a plastic sheet covering the ground.