ahead of that, dealing with precipitation, soaking rainfall up and down the eastern seaboard. watch out for flooding. these areas outlined here in red, that s where you could see strong storms with powerful winds and, again, some snowfall back towards the great lakes. in most spots accumulation is negligible. an inch or so in buffalo. and into eastern michigan. john and diana, back to you. an uptick in prices at the pump, on average, regular unleaded gas is 3.66 a gallon. up six cents in the past week. that s 11 cents higher than this time last year. west coast prices are even higher than that hitting 4.16 a gallon in california. and there is no relief in sight. the spike is being blamed on ç refinery maintenance and the switch to summer blends. moving on to this, another kind of sticker shock. michelle obama is visiting military families whose loved ones are in the hospital for care. she pitched in to help make easter cards.
point here with that freeze warning across the plains. ahead of that, dealing with precipitation, soaking rainfall up and down the eastern seaboard. watch out for flooding. these areas outlined here in red, that s where you could see strong storms with powerful winds and, again, some snowfall back towards the great lakes. in most spots accumulation is negligible. an inch or so in buffalo. back into northern ohio and eastern michigan. john and diana, back to you. thank you. drivers across the country are seein at the pump. on average, regular unleaded gas is 3.66 a gallon. up six cents in the past week. that s 11 cents higher than this time last year. west coast prices are even higher than that hitting 4.16 a gallon in california. and there is no relief in sight. the spike is being blamed on refinery maintenance and the switch to summer blends. moving on to this, another kind of sticker shock. first lady michelle obama visited a residence center for family members.
first of all, even if we drop a little bit we are going to have a higher starting point and driving season starts in april, so usually those prices go up then. so we could see much higher prices. we have put the top states for prices, hawaii, of course, most expensive but california 4.16 the average, d.c., 3.94 as you see the prices are much higher than we saw in any part of the winter last year and people are worried come april and may and june we could see higher prices wean saw last summer. shep: adam housley in santa monica. they could put americans out of work and possibly in danger. that is what $85 billion in spending cuts. fallout from the fiscal cliff deal. now, now the president is calling for congress to cut another short term deal to delay
behind you, adam? reporter: we re going to walk, bill, we re not going to drive for next couple weeks until gas prices come back down. we were out here in the summertime when gas prices were like this behind me. 4.99 for regular. 5.09 for premium. gas prices in california are consistently in the fives. no one expected this in the middle of february and in the middle winter. we putnam members together for you how high prices have gotten across the country. 33 straight days according to aaa. hawaii is the high left. but here in the contiguous 48, california, 4.16. d.c., 3.94. michigan,.91. indiana, 3.86. prices are significantly higher than you normally see this time of year. that is an increase over the lastmont. look since january 17th. back then it was $3.29 a gallon. now $3.74 a gallon. that is up 1%.
that s where we are, and numbers don t expect to drop anytime soon. in fact, we ve got a map for you to give you the high gas prices across the country, what people are seeing around the nation. of course, is always the highest, but here in the lower 48, california, $4.16, connecticut, $3.9 6, indiana, $3.86, that s all for regular gasoline, so in some cases premium s above $4, again, above $5 here. look at the increase since january 17th. on the 17th of january it was $3.29 a gallon, that was the national average. we re now at $3.74, that s up 44 cents. unbelievable. and when you talk to drivers, they re now just starting to see this, they re starting to realize they don t drive as much in the summertime, and they re not happy about it. your regular joe on the street is just being extorted and milked for anything he can get. it s definitely, it s something we all have to get, um, and it definitely makes a