April showers may bring flowers — but too little water to avoid more Bay Area drought

While April’s rain showers certainly helped bring up Bay Area rainfall totals, they won’t be enough to stave off the state’s third year of drought, and that means a round of strict, city-level restrictions.

As of Friday, the state had received 15.63 inches of rain, 75 percent of the historical average, according to California Water Watch, which offers an online map searchable down to the zip code level. The San Francisco watershed fared slightly better, with 16.2 inches for the year to date, 79 percent of the average for the full water year through Sept. 30.