STORMS HELP, BUT WEST STILL FACES DROUGHT

WASHINGTON Despite recent storms, severe drought continues to threaten much of the West, federal water experts reported Monday.

The combination of variable weather and rapidly growing population means California is ''living on borrowed time,'' for its water needs, said Frank Richards of the National Weather Service. Dry weather has parched California for five years and the outlook for the normally dry summer season is ''not good news,'' Richards said.

Water supplies are seriously depleted in California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, North Dakota and in the Missouri and Colorado river systems, Richards said in releasing the service's spring national water outlook.