Summer drivers already dealing with the hot temperatures are feeling the heat in another place as well – the gas pump.

At the start of the week, analyst Patrick DeHaan with wrote that the nation’s average price of a gallon of gas had risen 2.1 cents in the last week to $3.55 per gallon.  Yesterday DeHaan tweeted the national average has grown to $3.67 per gallon, just 2 cents lower than 2023′s high of $3.69 reported at the start of May.

The extreme heat, which comes coupled with supply issues and increased summer travel, are resulting in rapid price increases.

“With extreme heat also leading to some refinery outages – and, with the July gas inventories at their lowest level since 2015 we are primed to see cost increases showing up in force this week, across the country,” DeHaan added many large price increases are already being seen in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky as well as Florida.

The national average price for a gallon of gas, could easily go up between 5 and 10 cents this week – with increases as high as 25 cents per gallon in some places.

The average price per gallon in Alabama is currently $3.30 – an increase of 3 cents per gallon from the day before.  Last week’s average was $3.15; last month’s average was $3.12.  The highest price ever reported for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline, in the state of Alabama, was $4.63 on June 14th, 2022.

(www.AL.COM)