Despite weeks of rain and a growing perception that the California drought is dead or dying, state officials Wednesday largely extended the water regulations that have become the new normal in cities and towns throughout the state.

The rainy season that began in October is still far from over, and little is guaranteed when it comes to weather, regulators argued, adding that the Sierra snowpack that has built up to 154 percent of normal could melt quickly come warmer weather.

The regulations impose conservation on urban suppliers and threaten fines for noncompliance. Among other rules, watering lawns within 48 hours after rainfall is prohibited. Restaurants, meanwhile, are required to ask diners if they’d like a glass of water before serving it.

In an hours-long meeting of the State Water Resources Control Board, dozens of people opposed to the regulations said they had become unnecessary and damaging to public trust, given all the rain that’s fallen. But the board was unanimous.

It’s a “steady as she goes approach,” said Max Gomberg, the climate and conservation manager for the board. Steven Moore, a board member, said that “the drought could be over, but the need to conserve water is not.”

“I believe allowing the regulation to expire is like making an airplane landing without deploying the landing gear,” Moore said. “We’ll survive, but how will the airplane look?”

The rules, which had been set to expire at the end of February, were extended for up to 270 days, but the board plans to revisit the matter in May, a spokesman said.

Felicia Marcus, the water board’s chair, made it clear that her agency has been “watching the weather,” adding that the “excellent” spate of recent rain — including California’s seventh-wettest January on record, according to the National Weather Service — has been promising.

But she pointed out that many groundwater reserves are not back to normal.

“It’s an interesting picture,” Marcus said. “It’s a promising picture, and I guess my main point is that reasonable minds actually can and do differ on what we should do next.”

Many of California’s reservoirs have filled, leading water suppliers to call on Gov. Jerry Brown to lift his emergency declaration of drought. If Brown lifts the declaration, the restrictions would no longer apply.

Nancy Vogel, a spokeswoman for the California Natural Resources Agency, which monitors drought, noted that one of the state’s largest reservoirs, Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County, was at 13 percent capacity.

“Although this year may end up being wet ... we can’t say whether it’s just going to be one wet year in another string of dry ones,” Vogel said.

According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor figures released Feb. 2, about 39 percent of California was without any drought status, compared with 0 percent last year.

About half the state, though, remained in at least “moderate drought,” with 20 percent in “severe drought” and nearly 2 percent in “extreme drought.”

State Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber (Tehama County), an outspoken opponent of the drought regulations, called the measures “draconian.”

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michael_bodley