SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After being soaked by an onslaught of storms that have flooded towns, saturated fields and heaped the Sierra Nevada with a near-record snowpack, Californians are getting relief from a host of drought restrictions that were imposed last year during a historic dry spell.

“We’ve been waiting for this moment for some time,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said, stepping out between atmospheric rivers to lift all but about 33 of the more than 80 emergency drought orders he issued since last spring.

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But that doesn’t mean California can stop thinking about conservation.

“It would be nice to have a governor say the drought is over,” he said, but climate change has complicated the question. “Are we out of a drought? Mostly but not completely.”

The past three years have been the driest in recorded history in California. Last spring, state water officials reported that California’s largest reservoirs were at half of their historical averages and that the snowpack was at just 14% of average. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the government’s official drought-tracking service, more than 90% of the state was in severe or extreme drought.

Since then, however, a dozen powerful atmospheric rivers have swept through California, and Los Angeles has recorded more than 2 feet of rain, about 200% of normal since the current season began in October. Similar levels of rain have fallen in San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno and other cities.

On Thursday, the Drought Monitor reported that only about a third of the state was experiencing any drought, and that only about 8.5% was in severe or worse drought. Major reservoirs are so full that water is being released from some of them to make way for the inevitable thaw of a colossal snowpack that is nearing triple the average size for this time of year, said Mike Anderson, the state climatologist.

Although the storms have been destructive for parts of the state, the governor credited the wet winter with easing the painful drought. Also key, he said, were conservation measures that the state has taken over the past few years to boost water storage, increase supplies and upgrade flood-control infrastructure.

As the drought worsened, Newsom has appealed to residents to voluntarily cut 15% of their water usage. The state also slashed its deliveries to local and regional water agencies via the State Water Project. The project, a network of reservoirs, dams and waterways, is a major component of California’s sprawling water system and serves some 27 million residents and agricultural users throughout the state.

As recently as December, water officials warned agencies to brace for just 5% of the water supplies they had requested, a cut that stunned farmers and ranchers and heightened political tensions in rural California. A month later, officials raised that to 30% as winter storms drenched the state.

On Friday, Wade Crowfoot, the state’s secretary of natural resources, said the winter had been so wet that agencies would get 75% of their requested allotments.

Newsom also ended a requirement that water agencies impose measures intended to cut 20% of consumption. Anticipating the change, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California had already lifted mandatory restrictions for some 7 million people, which could allow some residents to water their yards more than twice a week.

But the state’s groundwater supplies remain significantly depleted, and the governor said emergency measures to recharge aquifers and capture stormwater would remain in place. Newsom also kept bans on “wasteful” water uses, such as watering lawns outside businesses if their purpose is only decorative.

Local water officials said the decision was both welcomed and expected, but unlikely to significantly affect their long-term emphasis on conservation. If they haven’t already, they will soon decide how many restrictions to roll back.

“This is great news,” said Andrea Pook, a spokesperson for the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which provides drinking water for some 1.4 million people in the Bay Area. “Does it mean conservation is over? No.”

She said the change would allow the district to end a penalty on excessive water use and shift from mandatory to voluntary conservation. But water conservation has also become a habit for many customers, she said, adding that the district’s customers had conserved more than 30,000 acre feet of water during the drought restrictions, enough to supply water for a year to 60,000 households.

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