Drastic water cuts expected for the Bay Area

Get ready for singed lawns, dusty cars and pricier produce. California water officials reported Thursday that the end-of-winter snowpack remained at low levels for the third year in a row, and water agencies in the Bay Area and around the state are asking residents to conserve at levels not seen since the last big drought in the early 1990s. The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which provides about one-third of the state's water supply, stood at 81 percent of normal Thursday; runoff, the amount of meltwater that flows into rivers and reservoirs, is projected at just 70 percent. Officials said snowpack would have to be at 120 percent of normal or more to replenish many of the state's reservoirs, some of which hover at just 50 percent of capacity. The measurements are the fourth of the season and the most important benchmark for water managers across California, who now will determine how to stretch their supplies through October, when the first rains usually arrive...San Francisco Chronicle