Heavy rain, high winds leave thousands without power across Nova Scotia

A windy and wet winter storm in Nova Scotia has left thousands without power and forced some schools to close Friday.

As of 8:30 a.m., about 21,000 customers were without power. The largest outages were in the Dartmouth area, parts of Halifax, Yarmouth, Kemptville, Bloomfield, New Germany, Mabou and Glace Bay. The estimated time of restoration, according to Nova Scotia Power's website, is between 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.

The Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education and the Strait RCE cancelled classes on Friday. A full list of closures can be found here.

All of Nova Scotia remained under rain, wind and flash freeze warnings Friday.

CBC meteorologist Tina Simpkin said in addition to the rain overnight, the province can expect periods of heavy rain to continue to bring another 20 mm to 40 mm into Friday afternoon. As a cold front pushes southward Friday afternoon, the temperature will drop very quickly and rain will change over to freezing rain and ice pellets. 

A drop of 10 to 15 degrees in just a few hours is looking likely Friday afternoon, creating potentially very icy conditions on roads, walkways and untreated surfaces. 

The high winds will be southwesterly 60 km/h gusting to 90 km/h but 110 km/h where the winds blow onshore before settling down Friday afternoon.

Whatever ice does form will linger, as temperatures will remain below zero throughout the weekends, so be sure to have the sand and salt at the ready.