U.S. District Senior Judge Charles Pannell Jr. was hearing a jury trial in Atlanta when the snowflakes began to fall on Tuesday morning.

“I kept the jury too long,” he reflected on Wednesday, although he said at the time, “We thought we had done the right thing.” He released jurors about 12:35 p.m. but didn’t start for home himself until shortly after 4 p.m., hoping that traffic would have cleared.