It was a bad morning to be a poppy.

The fragile little plants are just peeking out of the ground in backyards across Bismarck, and they were greeted Monday with a punch in the face. Right about the time bathroom and kitchen lights were being switched on throughout town, the temperature bottomed out at a chilly 18 degrees.

That broke a 50-year-old record. The previous record low for April 28 was 20 degrees, set in 1958. Jamestown also set a record low on Monday of 16 degrees, and temperatures were well below freezing all over the state.

Despite the record lows, a high danger of fire persisted across much of western North Dakota on Monday, and conditions looked like they might get even worse today. Temporary relief could be coming later in the week, when there's a 60 percent chance of rain.

The National Weather Service has issued a fire-weather watch for several western North Dakota counties today. Enhancing the risk is the possibility that a thunderstorm could move into the state from the southwest this evening, bringing with it the chance of dry lightning. High winds, dry conditions and low relative humidities will push the rangeland fire danger value into the high or very-high category, the weather service said.

The best chance for moisture this week is Thursday and into Friday, when a weather system is expected to move into the area. Computer models are undecided at this point as to whether the system will move north into North Dakota, meteorologist Janine Vining said. Still, there's a 60 percent chance of rain Thursday, and the weather service is saying rain or snow are likely Thursday evening.

"On Thursday through Friday night there's a big system coming in," Vining said. "We're trying to decide if it's going to come into North Dakota or stay south."

Nine counties, most of them in the north-central part of the state, recently dropped their burn bans, according to the state's Department of Emergency Services. Burn bans still exist in 24 counties, down from a high of 33 last week. Burleigh and Morton each have a burn ban in effect.

(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@;bismarcktribune.com.)