The price of gas across the country has been rising exponentially over the last several years, however we have seen significant growth in recent months. Arizona is unfortunately no stranger to these gas price increases.

The national average cost of a gallon of gas rang in at $3.63 one Friday in late April, but in many places in Arizona, people were seeing a price point of $5 a gallon.

At a Phoenix Chevron station, a gallon of regular 87 gas totaled $5.29. A representative of the AAA Arizona branch, Julian Paredes, said the two key factors that are affecting the prices are oil refinery maintenance and OPEC’s pull back announcement.

Paredes is also expecting the price to stay where it is through the month of May at least. With Memorial Day weekend approaching and summer being just a stone’s throw away, demand for gas will be higher. Summer means travel growing and with that, more driving will be happening. While we buckle up and prepare for the heat, we can prepare for the price of gas to remain high as well.

In Tucson, there was an 80-cent increase in just one month.

Other counties saw the price hike in the same fashion, increasing to new record highs. One father in Phoenix talked about how his family pays nearly double what they used to in order to fill up their tank. They’ve had to cut back on family time activities that involved going out, such as their weekend movie outings, in order to save up as they anticipate the high price remaining.

With this high price point for regular fuel, diesel is actually coming up as cheaper than gas in some parts of the state, something no one was expecting. Since diesel is mainly used to power home heating units and most of the country did not have too cold of winters, there has been a surplus of diesel, rivaling the shortage of regular gas. This supply chain difference has been a key factor in calculating the price difference.

The good news is that we’ve been here before, so we know what to expect. Last year, record prices happened around the country. At one point the national average of gas even got up to $4 a gallon. It is expected that the price will not continue to rise to the point which we reached last year.