Cape Breton Island took the brunt of a winter storm system bearing down on the Maritimes on Friday.

Plows hit the roads and some schools closed as a sloppy mix of rain, snow and high winds arrived.

"We'll have an operator for every single piece of gear we have, especially if we get up around the 30 centimetre mark,” said Ray Boudreau of Cape Breton Regional Municipality Public Works. “We'll have them out around the clock, basically, until the snow subsides."

Cape Breton Regional Police issued a reminder to motorists to stay off the roads.

“If you do have to travel, make sure your car is equipped for the road – has gas in it, you have a cell phone charged up, ready to go," said Const. Gary Fraser of Cape Breton Regional Police.

Boudreau says we’re lucky the snowfall has been gradual.

“Since our last storm, a lot of the snow accumulation that we had from the past storms has melted. So we've got lots of room for the incoming storm."

All schools in Prince Edward Island closed early for the day, while several schools closed pre-emptively in Nova Scotia. Other Nova Scotia schools dismissed students early.

The Nova Scotia Community College closed a number of its campuses early, including its Pictou, Lunenburg, Cumberland, Annapolis Valley, Metro and Kingstec campuses.

The overnight winter parking ban will be enforced in the Halifax area from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. to allow for snow removal. In addition, any vehicle that interferes with snow clearing could be ticketed or towed.

“It’s two systems merging, one over Southern Ontario, the other one along the Atlantic coast, and really intensifying as it merges,” says CTV weather presenter Alyse Hand. “Winds are picking up, they’ll be gusting out of the north and northeast today.”

Some parts of Atlantic Canada could see up to 40 centimetres of snow while other communities will mostly see heavy rain.

Hardware and grocery stores were busy as Maritimers prepared.

"As soon as there's a mention of a storm, we start early in the morning and we're going for the full day,” said hardware store sales representative Paul Jenkins. “Shovels, salt, sand, batteries – the requests just keep coming."

Cape Breton University's men's and women's basketball games against the University of Prince Edward Island were postponed until Sunday.

Multiple flights were grounded at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Atlantic's Ryan MacDonald.