Thousands left in the dark after strong winter storm pummels Nova Scotia UPDATE

Tens of thousands of Nova Scotians woke up Christmas Eve in the dark after strong winds and heavy rain played havoc with the power grid.

At the height of the storm Friday night more than 104,000 Nova Scotia Power customers were without electricity with wind and rain being listed by the utility as the cause of the outages.

Nova Scotia Power's website on Saturday morning showed the estimated restoration times varying from 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. with some areas of the province looking at an even longer time in the dark.

Saturday morning Halifax Stanfield International Airport showed several flight delays and cancellations and officials at the airport were again asking passengers to check with their airlines on the status of their flight before heading to the airport.

Most of the weather warnings that had been in effect on Friday were lifted by Environment Canada Saturday morning, except for a storm surge warning that remained for Digby and Yarmouth County, and rainfall warnings were still in effect for much of Cape Breton.

Environment Canada said the weather would continue to improve on Saturday, and Christmas Day's forecast was calling for a mix of sun and cloud with a chance of flurries and a high temperature of zero.