Snow, ice pellets, rain and wind in forecast for New Year's Eve

Environment Canada says Nova Scotianscan expect a messy mix of winter weather on New Year's Eve.

The national weather office released a special weather statement for the whole province Monday morning. It says all of Nova Scotia can expect snow and ice pellets changing to rain along with strong winds on Tuesday night.

The disturbance is expected to develop near Cape Cod early on New Year's Eve and will track slowly northeastward, moving across New Brunswick on New Year's Day.

By Tuesday morning, snow or rain will develop over southwestern Nova Scotia ahead of the system, before spreading to all regions of the province byevening.

The statement saysice pellets and freezing rain are also likelybefore thechangeover to rain.

Strong southeast winds, gusting from 70 to 80 km/h, are expected Tuesday afternoon and evening, before diminishing overnight.

"The timing and combination of mixed precipitation and strong winds could impact travel in parts of the province on New Year's Eve," the statement said.

Southwestern Nova Scotia can expectabout two centimetres of snow, while northern parts of the province could see up to 10. That amount could be higher over the Cape Breton Highlands.

About five to 20 millimetres of rain is also expected.

Cancellation in Cape Breton

On Monday afternoon, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality announced it would be cancelling its New Year's Eve event at city hall in Sydney for "public safety" reasons because of the inclement weather.

Extra transit runsplanned for New Year's Eve in the area have been cancelled. Instead, Transit Cape Breton will follow its regular weekday schedule on New Year's Eve with service ending at 5 p.m.

Instead of an outdoor event, CBRM and Centre 200 will have a free skate from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on New Year's Eve after the Cape Breton Eagles hockey game. There will be free hot chocolate and popcorn.

Halifax New Year's Eve celebration still a go

The New Years Eve celebration planned in Grand Paradein Halifax isstill on for Tuesday night.

"We got ahead of it, luckily, knowing that it was coming," said Billy Comer, civic events co-ordinator with the city.

"What we're doing now is a lot of the detail work where we're really harnessing things down, adding extra weightsand really making sure that we're secure."

Any changes to the event will be posted on the Halifax Civic Events Twitter page.

The fully accessible event starts at around 11 p.m. and will feature fireworks and music.

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