Gas prices declining ahead of Thanksgiving holiday
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Your turkey and trimmings might cost you more this year, but you're going to get a break at the gas pump ahead of Thanksgiving.
It seems like every time we hit a driving holiday, gas prices go up -- but it looks like this Thanksgiving might be bucking that stereotype.
The rollercoaster of gas prices had been going the wrong direction, but GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan says that prices have abruptly stopped after increasing over a period of several weeks.
"Well, last week, it had touched $95 a barrel, today it's down to $84. So a tremendous drop," De Haan said.
With local prices dropping by a few cents per gallon in the last week, De Haan says that prices throughout the Pittsburgh area should continue to trend downwards.
De Haan says those decreases could be as much as 15 cents per gallon or more, if stations start passing along the lower prices quickly.
Now, if you're heading out of town for the holiday traveling east, prices in the Philadelphia area around 10 cents per gallon higher.
If you're traveling west, De Haan says you'll notice a much bigger difference once you cross into Ohio, where prices are generally 20 to 40 cents cheaper per gallon than in the Pittsburgh area.
If you're heading south, expect a bigger drop in prices.
"The farther south you'll go, the cheaper prices will get especially if you cross into North Carolina and into South Carolina and Georgia. A station in Georgia yesterday in Atlanta was charging just $2.59, yes $2.59, not $3.59 for a gallon of gasoline," De Haan said.
De Haan is optimistic about a continuing decline at our pumps over the next month to six weeks, but he always puts an asterisk next to it, saying that's assuming that something doesn't happen, and notes that he doesn't have a crystal ball.
