11 a.m. Light snow flurries across metro Atlanta get heavier, start to stick.

11:23 a.m. Cobb County Schools announces students will be released early. Within the hour, all metro Atlanta schools would follow.

12:15 p.m. Georgia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Natalie Dale recommends workers go home.

1 p.m. Traffic across metro Atlanta interstates has ground to a halt. GDOT says the problem is traffic volume, not road conditions.

1:51 p.m. GDOT reports traffic speeds on I-75 South in Cobb are 0 mph. Other interstate traffic is similarly slow in spots and would stay that way for hours.

1:55 p.m. Gov. Nathan Deal issues an executive order declaring a state of emergency, allowing state agencies to close.

2 p.m. Schools in at least two metro Atlanta districts report they would be ending or delaying bus service. Students in Paulding and Cobb are left at schools; parents have to come pick them up.

5 p.m. By this hour, most metro Atlanta schools announce school is canceled for Wednesday.

7 p.m. Several trouble spots keep traffic gridlocked. Icing, the DOT says, was responsible for a jackknifed truck blocking I-85 North to I-285 West at Spaghetti Junction.

7:15 p.m.: Motorists on Atlanta Road driving west into Cobb County begin abandoning their vehicles, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter.