Record winter rainfall may have vanquished the state’s five-year drought, but that hasn’t stopped Californians from conserving water.

California’s urban water conservation for the month of February was 25.1 percent, more than double the 11.9 percent savings in February 2016 and the lowest amount of daily water consumed per capita to date, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.

“Even with a banner year for winter precipitation, Californians have continued to practice sensible conservation, with a significant drop in water use in the South Coast,” said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the state water board in a statement.

While it has often lagged in the past, the South Coast hydrological region contributed to 60 percent of the statewide savings in February. Southern Californians saved 51,208 acre-feet of water, or 16.7 billion gallons.

The common thinking is that rainy skies kept Southern Californians from irrigating their lawns, watering their ornamental bushes and washing their cars. While the weather may have helped, the resulting savings is a relatively new outcome, experts say.

“When it rains, yes, people water less. But that could be attributed to the conservation ethic that has taken place. Some of that drought infrastructure has not gone away,” said Adan Ortega, water expert and adviser to the group of water agencies and cities of the San Gabriel Valley Water Association.

The State Water Board released a plan in November, “Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life,” which continues prohibitions against watering lawns after a rainstorm, washing cars without a hose shut-off nozzle and decorative fountains that use potable water that’s not recycled. Also, 400 of the largest water suppliers must continue to report savings to the board.

The board is also planning for the possibility that this wet year that dropped above normal amounts of rainfall in Los Angeles and well-above average amounts in Northern California, could be an anomaly and that drought years could return thereafter.

“Though our water picture is significantly improved in most of California, we have to maintain our drought memory and shift to planning and action to prepare for the long-term,” added Marcus.

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest water wholesaler providing imported water to 19 million people in Southern California, like smaller agencies is piping surplus water abundant in Northern California reservoirs to local reservoirs and groundwater basins through the State Water Project aqueduct.

“This is certainly positive news and for Southern California as well,” said Bob Muir, an MWD spokesman. “We are hoping consumers will continue conservation practices as we move into the summer.”

Meanwhile, the MWD is moving billions of gallons of water into storage for future dry periods. The Diamond Valley Reservoir in Hemet is at 80 percent capacity and will be full by the end of summer, Muir said. That will equal the most water stored in Diamond Valley in six years, he said.

Local groundwater basins, such as the San Gabriel Basin, which serves 1.9 million people, the Chino Basin (1.2 million people) and the Central Basin (2 million) and West Basin (1 million) in southeast and western Los Angeles County are desperately trying to replenish water tables that hit historic lows during the drought.

Refilling underground basins, where water districts, cities and private water companies use wells to draw out water they deliver to customers, is a slow-and-go process, Ortega said.

“The San Gabriel Basin, for example, is still in the hole,” he said. “Many of our groundwater basins have not recovered.”

Local dams in the San Gabriel Mountains are not full, he said, because local rainfall seeped into parched soil instead of running into the mountain reservoirs. “The earth has been so dried up from five years of drought that much of that water is underneath those dams. That is a factor invisible to most people,” Ortega said.

Still, the state board is reporting the amount of statewide urban potable water production was the lowest in February since reporting began in June 2014.

Potable water savings in February, based on 0.2 acre-feet of water used by the average person per year, equals enough to supply 13 million Californians with water for one year. From June 2015, the state’s urban users have saved 22.5 percent, which equates to 2,597,681 acre-feet or 847 billion gallons, the agency reported.