Most of the snow will melt away as Nova Scotia reaches double-digit temperatures on Saturday, but the spring-like weather won't last for long.
"All of us will wake up to above-freezing temperature Saturday," Cindy Day said in an interview Friday.
The SaltWire Network chief meteorologist said most of the snow dumped across Nova Scotia on Wednesday should melt as temperatures will be from nine to 11 degrees on Saturday.
But the warm weather isn't here to stay.
"There's be some rain coming in late in the day and then the trouble starts overnight Saturday, when the frontal line that's across central New Brunswick over to the tip of Cape Breton and Newfoundland starts to drop southward and the cold air starts to come in," Day said.
"So we're right on the boundary of warm and cold and that's going to allow for an extended period of freezing rain in that transition."
Most of mainland Nova Scotia, from the Valley up to Truro, into Amherst, and across the Causeway will be pelted with freezing rain for more than six hours.
"It may go back and forth to ice pellets and freezing rain, but it's an icy scenario for much of the mainland," Day said.
Freezing rain freezes on contact when it hits a cold object, different from ice pellets, which is precipitation that changes to ice as it falls through the air and bounces when it hits the ground.
Ice secretion of 15-20 millimetres is expected to accumulate on branches and power lines, Day said.
Cape Breton is in for a mixed bag of weather, with extended freezing rain for most of the island, except for the northwestern corner that will see heavy snow followed by an ice pellet mix.
Day said the slow-moving system won't bring a rapid temperature drop, but once the ice starts to form it's here to stay.
"We don't go from freezing rain to rain to snow, so whatever comes in with the freezing rain we'll keep because the temperatures are on their way down, so it could be a very icy Monday morning depending on salt trucks," she said.
Nova Scotia Power will be activating its emergency operations centre on Saturday evening in advance of the storm and "will be keeping a close eye on the storm."
Digby to Yarmouth and around Liverpool will be on the warmer side of the system, getting up to 30 millimetres of rain.
Northern New Brunswick is in for heavy snowfall and will see up to 40 centimetres, while Newfoundland will see mostly snow, between 10-15 centimetres, with some mixed precipitation.
As the system moves out Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday will be quiet weatherwise, accompanied by colder temperatures.
But Nova Scotia's winter weather is just getting started.
"I expect that it will be a winter with more snow than average," Day said.
"If you remember 2015, that winter started exactly like this one. On Jan. 1, there was no snow on the ground, zero centimetres of snow measured at the airport followed by a couple of days that it was plus eight and then it just started to snow and kept cycling through."
When asked if this winter could shape up to be like 2015, Day answered "it's possible.
"If we get enough systems that are tracking just south of us and we stay on the cold side, then we'll keep getting hit with snow events."
