CALIFORNIA, USA — Don't shoot the messenger, but if you haven't heard — or even noticed — gas prices are going up. Way up.
In fact, according to AAA, California just made the largest weekly jump of any state in the country.
So what's going on?
Well, according to GasBuddy, this week California will see something no state in the whole country has seen in nearly five years: Average gas prices over $4 a gallon. The last time it was that high was July of 2014.
Last year, the peak was $3.83 a gallon. That's about what the current state average is right now ($3.80) -- which is already six cents more than the national average ($3.74).
GasBuddy says a lot of it has to due with what they call seasonal changes. More people hit the road heading into Memorial Day when the weather gets nice, but there are other factors as well.
According to GasBuddy, refinery problems have "plagued" the West Coast recently leading to an extremely low supply of cleaner summer gasoline. That, combined with the planned maintenance typically scheduled at refineries this time of year, has further tightened the supply.
Translation for us? Higher prices.
In the Sacramento region, AAA says you're going to find the lowest gas prices right now in Stanislaus, Tuolumne , Amador, Yuba and Sutter counties. The counties currently with the highest average are El Dorado, Nevada and Colusa.
Sacramento is somewhere in the middle with an average gas price slightly below the state average at $3.70 a gallon.
Counties around Los Angeles and San Francisco are seeing some of the highest prices in the state.
The good news? This is a trend across the country, not just California. Also, $4 a gallon isn't the highest the state has ever seen. That was $4.67 in October of 2012.
The bad news? Prices aren't expected to go down anytime soon. As our friends at GasBuddy so kindly reminded us: In less than 90 days — on July 1st — the state gas tax will rise 5.6 cents per gallon.
Continue the conversation with Liz Kreutz on Facebook.
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No doubt you've read social media posts and hear about people leaving the state. And, while it's certainly happening, it's not happening as rapidly as you might think.