The clock is ticking for spring rains to refill New Jersey's water supplies.

Residents are weeks away from turning on lawn sprinklers and hoses for garden projects, yet many of the state's reservoirs remain lower than normal for March.

The news comes with a stark warning from one major water supplier.

"We did not have a wet winter," said Mark McDonough, president of New Jersey American Water, which supplies water to about 2.8 million people across the state.

"Since the state has had less-than-normal precipitation through the fall, while our current supplies are stable, we are encouraging conservation," he said. "If the state's not able to make up… the precipitation that they haven't had since the fall, there could be additional restrictions come summer, when the demand on water is more severe."

A months-long drought has left its mark across the Garden State. Its impact is so deep that recent soaking rainstorms have yet to refill depleted water levels.

While Sunday's storm dropped as many as three inches of rain in some areas, New Jersey State Climatologist David Robinson said residents were not yet "out of the woods."

"It was the 11th driest winter, (counting December, January and February)," said Robinson. "And it was preceded by the driest fall on record, and we have records back to 1895."

Conditions dropped to their worst in November, when some New Jersey reservoirs were at just half of their overall storage capacity.

"We're not totally done with it (the drought)," said the climatologist. "But it's gotten better."

Robinson said there is still time for spring rains to improve conditions in many of New Jersey's reservoirs.

"But that window of opportunity… is now down to the one- to two-months range," he said. "(If) we don't get the reservoirs up, certainly by Memorial Day, it's really tough to keep the reservoirs where they are, let alone replenish them further. (That is) unless you have restrictions on water use... or an early season tropical storm."

New Jersey's weather patterns make it difficult to predict whether the drought that began late last summer is ending or will carry on, Robinson said. The best case scenario would be for New Jersey to receive slightly above average rainfall over the next few months, he said.

"We don't have such abundant reservoir capacity that we can handle a six-month major drought without problems," he said.

Reservoirs not where they should be in March

Reservoirs in northern New Jersey are in similarly low states. Collectively across reservoirs that supply Jersey City, Newark and surrounding areas, storage were just over 70% capacity, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. By mid-March, those reservoirs are usually closer to 100%, according to the state department.

Since last September, New Jersey's rainfall tallies were between 26% and 50% below normal, according to the national weather service.

Monmouth County's rain totals were more than seven inches below normal for the six-month stretch, where 21.8 inches of rain is typical, according to the weather service. Ocean County was similarly seven inches below normal, where 21.4 inches of rain is the average.

McDonough encouraged people to use dishwashers rather than handwashing dishes, because they are more efficient, and to be conservative with lawn watering and irrigating gardens in the coming weeks.

"It's okay to water your plants and get your gardens going, but we just want everybody to be thoughtful in how they do that," he said.

Not only were reservoirs low, but stream beds were dry across much of New Jersey as of early March, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. Streams flows were considered "severely dry" in northeastern New Jersey and "extremely dry" across the rest of the state, as of March 9.

Earlier this month, New Jersey Environmental Commissioner Shawn LaTourette encouraged the state's residents to conserve water, but said he was not yet considering any mandatory water restrictions.

"If we are really conscious and careful about our planting season across all the gardens that I know make our homes beautiful, we will be in a better position to fill our swimming pools come July," he said last week.

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 17 years. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, [email protected] or 732-557-5701.