The blast of snow that hit Cape Breton on Friday was just a prelude to a weekend weather bomb coming to the Maritimes.

Parts of the winter-weary region could see almost 50 centimetres of snow through the weekend, with a big dump forecasted for Sunday.

Provincial government offices, schools and businesses were closed Friday in Cape Breton as the first storm descended on the island.

“We’re getting another one on Sunday. This is a mini one. This is the pre-storm to the big one on Sunday,” said Sydney resident Paul MacDougall.

Despite his disgust with the white stuff, Terry Hollohan was out stocking up for “the big one” at a Sydney grocery store.

“If you’re going to be stuck in front of the TV until the storm is over, it’s good to have something to snack on,” Hollohan said.

Transit Cape Breton buses were pulled off the roads and police urged drivers to do the same as the snow impacted visibility.

In Saint John, news of Sunday’s snowstorm took on additional meaning as crews continued to work non-stop clearing snow from the buried city.

For Don Walker, who has been working among them, the forecast means one thing.

“I won’t be sleeping much this weekend, Saturday or Sunday,” he said.

Walker and other workers enjoyed some much-needed downtime, after helping to remove about 16,000 truckloads of snow from the city’s streets over the past two weeks.

City officials said they’ll be wrapping up snow-removal operations on Friday so as to prepare for the next in this winter’s series of storms.

Tim O’Reilly of the Saint John city works department said the work is expected to resume after the weekend.

“Likely, with the amount of snow on the street already and with the forecast, we’ll be moving into more removal operations after the fact,” he said.

“I mean, they have been working up to 16 hours a day for about the past two weeks, so we’re trying to give them a little bit of time off tomorrow in preparation for Sunday,” he said.

Like the snow-removal workers, Saint John residents are tired of all the snow they’ve been hit with.

“It’s kind of sad, over the last few weeks, with the kids walking down the street or seeing them climb over the banks or walking down the middle of the road,” said local resident Mike Green.

Business owner Anne McShane has had enough too.

“It used to be that when 40 centimetres is coming, we didn’t know what that looked like — well, we’ve been there, done that, we’ve all got the t-shirts,” she said.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore and Nick Moore