SEATTLE -- Rising temperatures and rain cleared roads Thursday in most areas of Western Washington hit by snow earlier in the week, but power outages and icy roads still plagued some spots, mostly in the North Sound.

The Transportation Department sent its trucks north to Whatcom County to help with plowing and sanding on the ice-covered roads around Bellingham.

Power was still out in some areas, but the icy gridlock that forced thousands of drivers to abandon their cars earlier in the week was gone in most of Western Washington. Video: Thousands In North Sound Still Without Power

Over 6,000 Snohomish Utility District customers were without power Thursday afternoon, a spokesman told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

Schools were closed Thursday for a third straight day in Bellingham and in other North Sound districts. In other areas, schools were open but many opened late. Get the list of current school closures here.

The Washington State Transportation Department said most roads around Puget Sound are bare and wet with slush in places.

WSDOT officials said crews are still clearing many highways. Snoqualmie Pass was closed at 4:45 a.m. for avalanche control and reopened less than an hour later.

An Airlift Northwest medical evacuation helicopter pilot made an unplanned landing at Myrtle Edwards Park along the Seattle waterfront because of freezing rain and some streets were closed for a time Wednesday night, but rising temperatures assured that slush and ice would not long be a problem. No one else was aboard the chopper.

In Bothell, where abandoned cars lined a street Tuesday morning, drivers made their way on wet pavement, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Michelle Millman said. One road -- 160th at 124th -- was still closed. Video: Ice Roads And Power Outages Still A Problem For Some

In Seattle, reporter Jeff Dubois said there was a "sigh of relief" after overnight snow turned to rain, leaving most streets passable. Video: Snow Turns To Rain In Seattle

Hours after temperatures dropped to record lows across the state, sleet and snow began falling Wednesday evening after the end of the rush hour.

Across the region the mercury rose from the 20s and upper teens at daybreak Wednesday to around the freezing point by 6 p.m. and over freezing early Thursday. As of 2 a.m. light rain was falling over most of the state west of the Cascade range and temperatures ranged from the mid-30s inland to the 40s by the coast.

Precipitation broke the one-month record for Seattle, 15.33 inches set in December 1933, when the official reporting station was at the old downtown Federal Building.

By Thursday morning, the November precipitation total at the current station, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, stood at 15.59 inches.

Earlier, the weather service reported a record low of 18 degrees at the airport, breaking the old mark for Nov. 29 of 22 degrees set in 1985.

Other record lows included 12 degrees at Bellingham, near the Canadian border; 25 degrees in Hoquiam near the coast, and 2 degrees below zero at Pullman in the southeast corner of the state.

The worst remaining trouble spot was the northwest corner of the state, where 3 to 6 inches of snow was expected before the precipitation stopped or changed to rain.

With warmer temperatures expected to follow the storm, the Weather Service also issued a flood watch for the combined effects of rain and melting snow in Whatcom County, just south of the Canadian border.

The previous storm was linked to two deaths -- Mike Harding and Steven A. Gallauher, both 16, whose bodies were found Tuesday in a garage east of Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula.

They apparently succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to refuel a portable generator that was being used to provide electricity for an adjacent house during a storm-caused blackout, Clallam County officials said.