It was extremely cold that day, no? He may have loaded up on groceries before the storm and not gone out.
On the other hand, if a friend leaves the party, the host wants to make sure their car starts, doesn’t skid on the ice (I’m assuming there was ice), etc.
Cold but the snow didn’t come until later is what is being said. So, they couldn’t have “frozen” as he said.
We are well to the southeast and got rain, then the very cold hit (fast!) later, so there were definitely wet spots and flows over the roads that froze — quite hazardous.
Most of our snow came later — at least a day later, IIRC. But ill protected out in that cold dry wind, one would not last long, and it got even colder in KC.