Gas prices are continuing to rise around the Tampa Bay area and elsewhere.
Average retail prices in Tampa have risen 17.2 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.41 per gallon Sunday, according to a survey of 1,200 gas outlets by to the gasoline price website GasBuddy.com.
Nationally, the average gas price has increased 12.0 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.42 per gallon.
But there's another way to look at it.
While the local prices are 47.4 cents per gallon higher than a month ago, they're still 96.9 cents per gallon lower than the same day one year ago. The national average has increased 37.4 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 103.8 cents per gallon lower than this day one year ago.
"The spring spike has hit pumps across the nation, and it certainly has motorists wonder what in the heck is going on," said GasBuddy analyst Patrick DeHaan. "New records were broken last week in California as prices spiked at their fastest pace ever, even faster than when Chevron's sprawling Richmond, Calif., refinery caught fire. Meanwhile, every single state - all 50 of them - saw a price increase in the last week, with a common theme behind the increases: refinery this, refinery that."
DeHaan said in the last two weeks, a rash of refinery problems has pushed up wholesale prices: Included: an explosion at a California refinery, unexpected cold-related shut downs along the East Coast and Great Lakes, and maintenance that's beginning at other refineries across the country.
That was on top of the annual the transition to cleaner, more costly blends of gasoline and declining gasoline inventories, and it's a bleak picture.
DeHaan said while the massive spikes on the West Coast will likely slow over the next week, "increases will persist country wide, and the general upward trend will likely remain in place for 6-8 more weeks before motorists see declining prices ahead of Memorial Day weekend as maintenance work wraps up and the transition to summer gasoline concludes."