Yes, you’re paying more for gas in North Carolina. Will prices fall as Texas recovers?

Simone Jasper
·2 min read

Gas prices are surging in North Carolina — and you can blame the recent winter weather.

North Carolina drivers are paying an average of 13 cents more per gallon compared to last week, AAA Carolinas said Monday in a news release.

The statewide average price is $2.48, up 26 cents from last month but still below the $2.63 national average. That’s the highest it’s been since October 2019, according to AAA.

The prices are up after ice, snow and frigid temperatures battered the Midwest and Texas last week. The conditions left more than a dozen people dead and millions without electricity, the Associated Press reported.

The weather also forced some oil and gas refineries to shut down, resulting in higher prices at pumps in North Carolina and beyond.

“Crude production is offline because refineries are now closed,” Tiffany Wright, a AAA Carolinas spokesperson, said in the release. “Until operations resume and production is back to normal levels, we can expect to see the spike in prices stick around.”

Over the weekend, parts of Texas warmed into the 60s and 70s, putting the cold temperatures in the rearview mirror, according to the National Weather Service.

So when can North Carolinians expect to pay less at the pump?

“With the cold weather behind us, price increases show begin to slow later this week or next week, and so long as these refineries get back online in short order, we may see gas prices start to move back down in the next couple of weeks,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis with the smartphone app company GasBuddy, said Monday in a news release.

But don’t expect that decrease to last for long.

That’s because gas prices typically go up when refineries switch to summer gasoline during the warmer months, according to experts.

Across North Carolina, fewer people hit the road in 2020 as the COVID-19 led some people to work from home and halt travel plans. While the state is in its third month of the vaccine rollout, some coronavirus-related restrictions continue.