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.
size. he has more than 12 million views on tube. what a talent. that is your 5@5:30. paying at the pump. gasoline is urging by 55 percent. the average cost per gallon of regular unleaded 3.75 cents. that is up 17 krens ras week and up $0.45 since mid january. rising gas prices are hitting hard. you take a look at the prices over the course of the last month going from 3.30 a gallon to north of 3.70 a gallon. that s well over $0.40 a gallon in just over 30-days. in some parts of the country a gallon of premium gas will go for well over $5 a gallon. the timing isn t necessarily the pride it has to start the annual ritual of switching over the government mandated summer blends. this year it is one factor among
barrel this year or from late last year, ten a barrel higher. there is also this ongoing turmoil in the middle east. it never seems to settle down right in the middle of the oil patch. so oil prices stay, 95, 96, $97 a barrel. up goes the price of gas, martha. that s what s happening. martha: once we get through the blend period which you re pointing out is always a little upward pressure on prices and even more so in this case because of all the underlying factors that you mentioned what does it mean as we get closer to the summer season? higher i imagine. that is it when gas prices traditionally go up, we drive more and demand goes up and we use the summer blends. most analysts suggest we ll get much closer to the $4 a gallon. maybe we ll go over that, nobody really knows but we ll get closer to $4 a actual a gallon. california, regular averages $4.17 a gallon. illinois, connecticut and new york are very close to
california s previous record was 4.61 in 2008. just yesterday, the governor there, jerry brown, took action, clearing the way for gas stations to start selling sellit they call winter grade gasoline a few weeks early that. could make california s smog problem worse, but it s cheaper than the summer blends and they are desperate. adam housley is live in los angeles. why is this california? is it your weird this kind of gas, that kind of gas way? that s one of the three reasons. it s all demand being one as well. the third reason is the refineries that make that weird gas, you talk about, are only here in california and a couple went down. one we saw last month a big fire in northern california, was on the fox report. that refinery still isn t back on-line. a couple others are down. that means there is less gas to use in california. you can t buy it from the states nearby because they don t make the same kind of gas. we talked to industry experts who say drivers in the golden state sho