GAS PRICES SKYROCKET TO NEARLY FIVE DOLLARS A GALLON IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY

 Humboldt County, CA- Gas prices in Humboldt County have spiked to almost 5 dollars a gallon.The AAA daily fuel gauge report shows the average price of a gallon of fuel across the State of California at $4.49 per gallon. That's the highest in the country.Stations around town are posting prices at or around $4.79 for regular and $4.99 for diesel. The price spikes come after a dramatic increase in wholesale prices for fuel.Californiagasprices.com reports the recent hike is because of refinery outages and the recent facility fire at Chevron. But Humboldt County is no stranger to high gas prices; we spoke to some people at the pump who aren’t surprised to see the hike. Alex Bowman says, "I stopped paying attention a while ago. Gas is something I have to have in order to do what I got to do. It became painful about 6 months ago."One Eureka resident told us that he doesn’t even fill up his gas tank anymore. "Its pretty pricey, I didn't really fill up I just put 40 bucks in…It just recently jumped back up, wasn't it only 4.20 just a couple weeks ago."Arcata resident Alex Bowman told us, "It would be nice to pay what they are paying a couple of hours south or a couple of hours east."Compared to Humboldt, prices in Southern California are averaging in the mid $4.00 range.