North Dakota will end 2006 in a long-term drought, with dry conditions "persisting or intensifying" into the new year, the National Weather Service said.

Meteorologist Rich Leblang said this year will rank among the 10th driest since record keeping began in 1875.

"It's been a dry year," he said.

The extreme southwest corner of the state is in an "extreme" drought category, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb.

Much of central and western North Dakota is still in the "moderate" and "severe" drought categories. The southeast corner of the state is the wettest, but it is ranked only as "abnormally dry."

The lack of significant snowfall this winter has done little to recharge soil moisture, Leblang said.

"This normally is our dry time of year," Leblang said. "It's virtually impossible to end a drought during the winter. Most of the precipitation during the year falls during warm weather."

Precipitation is more than 5 inches below average in Bismarck, Grand Forks and Fargo, Leblang said.

Unless the state gets record snowfall, most of the state will remain under a drought, Leblang said.

"We can get snow but the moisture with it won't amount to much," he said.

U.S. Department of Agriculture research shows that subsoil and topsoil moisture supplies are "short to adequate" for most of the state. Areas south of Dickinson and north of Jamestown are defined as "very short."

More than 650 fires were reported this summer, scorching more 45,000 acres of grasslands in North Dakota. The state Forest Service said it was the worst fire season in the state's history.

The U.S. Forest Service says that fire danger is ranked "very high" in the northwest quarter of North Dakota. Fired danger for the rest of the state remains high, the agency said.

Temperatures are expected to be above normal through February, while precipitation is forecast to be below normal, the weather service said.

North Dakota's driest year on record was in 1934, the weather service said. The state has had at least one major drought in every decade since 1900, except for the 1940s, the agency said.