OTTAWA -- A winter storm warning for Ottawa ended Thursday evening, after dropping more than 19 centimetres of snow, and even some rain and freezing drizzle.

One of the biggest winter storms of the year, it cancelled flights and school buses across the region, and kept many civil servants home from work for a snow day.

Environment Canada said the Ottawa Airport saw 17 centimetres of snow between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Thursday, in addition to 2.4 centimetres of snow Wednesday, when the storm began. Eighteen centimetres of snow had fallen at the Gatineau Airport Thursday.

Ottawa also saw about 1.5 hours of freezing rain overnight.

City officials told CTV Morning Live that a Winter Weather Parking Ban will be implemented at 10 p.m. Thursday. Only vehicles with on-street parking permits will be allowed to park on city roads during the parking ban.

School buses were cancelled in all boards across eastern Ontario, including the Ottawa Carleton District School Board and Ottawa Catholic School Board.

The City of Ottawa warned motorists commuting would be slow. On Wednesday, Mayor Jim Watson urged residents to consider working from home to alleviate traffic on the roads during the storm.

City staff said Thursday morning that its crews were “trying to keep up” with the snow during the morning commute.

“We’re pretty fortunate today there’s very low traffic volumes, so our staff and equipment are able to get out and move around very effectively,” Bryden Denyes, Area Manager, Core Roads told CTV Morning Live.

The city has over 500 pieces of equipment to clear roads and sidewalks.

“We didn’t get much snow last night, but we did have some freezing rain that we had to treat last night. So staff were going through roads and sidewalks, our priority roads and sidewalks network, to treat those icy conditions,” Denyes said.

Ottawa has received 163 centimetres of snow so far this winter. During the same period last winter, Ottawa had received 269 centimetres of snow.