CHICAGO — Gas prices continue to spike upward for Minnesota drivers, with a hike of nearly 20 cents per gallon for the second week in a row.
The app and website known as GasBuddy says the price of gas at stations across the Twin Cities jumped 17.9 cents last week, pushing the cost of unleaded to an average of $3.84. That increase comes on the heels of an 18.7 cent bump the previous week. GasBuddy says fuel is almost 40 cents per gallon more expensive than last month, but 24.8 cents lower than the same time a year ago.
"Average gasoline prices continued to move up last week thanks to a continued rise in oil and continued pressure from hot weather that impacted refineries," said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. "However, the pace of increases has started to slow down over the last few days, and for now, appears to have hit a peak over the weekend and is beginning to gently fall."
De Haan warns that we may not have seen the ceiling on gas either, with hurricane season laying ahead. Strong storms can trigger shutdowns at refineries, many of which sit in hurricane areas.
GasBuddy gets its prices by regularly surveying 1,106 gas stations across the Twin Cities, with additional surveys in communities across the state.
Neighboring states were not hit as hard by the fuel increases, with Wisconsin stations reporting an average of $3.60 per gallon (up 4.3 cents from last week) and stations in Sioux Falls, SD coming in at $3.64 (up 13.9 cents).
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