ANCHORAGE, Alaska-Heavy winter weather descended on south-central and the Kenai Peninsula yesterday, causing power outages and hazardous driving conditions. High winds and blowing snow created white-out conditions all along the Seward and Sterling highways south of the city and on the Glenn Highway to the east.

Parts of Southern Anchorage suffered from power failures, the outages continued to the south of the city as well. Many on the Kenai Peninsula lost power during the severe weather. Lights continue to flicker and dim this morning, warning that perhaps the outages are not over.

Alaska State troopers advised motorists to stay off of the highways to and from Anchorage last night, citing white-out conditions in the passes and very slippery roads. Troopers responded to numerous instances of vehicles off the road through the night. State road crews worked to rescue motorists stranded by drifting snows along the highways.

The weather service predicted several inches of snow and high wind conditions from the winter storm. Winds reached speeds of over 80 during the night-time hours.

A winter advisory is still in effect and will continue until 9 am this morning. The weather service is cautioning drivers to be aware of limited visibility and drifting snow.

The weather front responsible for the adverse weather conditions has moved off to the east and is now mainly moving into Canada. Conditions in the south-central region will continue to improve, and clear to partly cloudy skies should be wide-spread in the region by late morning to early afternoon according to weather charts and reports.