NEBRASKA - Nebraska has been dealing with a statewide drought for the last few months, and experts say it might not end anytime soon.

The U.S. Drought Monitor says all of Nebraska is at least abnormally dry, while the panhandle is experiencing extreme drought. Brian Fuchs, Associate Geoscientist/Climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center, says the state hasn't dealt with drought conditions this widespread in a few years.

"Realistically if you look at the data for the state of Nebraska, we have to go all the way back to 2014 to see anything that's even close to what we're seeing right now," Fuchs said. "I have a feeling we're early on in this drought, we've been dry again through much of the fall season, and looking at the long-term outlooks there's not a strong signal we're going to be getting out of this drought anytime soon."

Normally after harvest season fall and winter precipitation helps to replenish the land, but the lack of rain will likely impact the next growing season when spring comes around.

"Once the production year is done we look to have fall and winter precipitation events replenish that soil moisture, and right now we have not had much of that," Fuchs said. "When we hit next spring unless something drastically changes before we freeze up for the winter, it's going to be challenging in the spring because we haven't added any of that moisture into the soil profile."

The U.S. Drought Monitor is updated every week and released each Thursday morning. Click here for more on Nebraska's drought conditions:

Drought Monitor