The snow started overnight Tuesday and kept coming...and coming...and coming.
What may have seemed like a cruel joke from Mother Nature, turned into a full day of snow in the capital, followed by freezing rain Wednesday night, made for some messy commutes.
"It was basically double what it usually takes," says Melissa Boswell.
Her usual commute to Carleton University from Orleans takes an hour, but it was much longer Wednesday, with multiple crashes and OC Transpo buses getting stuck in the snow.
"You could see that under the bridge, there was about 15 buses completely stopped," Boswell says.
At least 20 centimetres of snow fell over the course of the day, before changing to freezing rain. The milder temperatures are expected to make way for rain overnight.
City of Ottawa Road Services Manager Luc Gagne tells CTV News road crews will “be out at the onset of this event to start plowing and salting the arterial road network, the arterial sidewalk network.”
Gagne adds the city will stay “on top” of the storm as the system changes from snow to freezing rain.
Ottawa Police are reminding drivers to adjust their speeds to the snowy conditions. Officers received calls for more than 200 collisions on Monday and Tuesday, and more than 40 on Wednesday morning.