Gas prices expected to increase for Memorial Day weekend.

Costs to climb as Memorial Day nears

Fill up your gas tank now if you want to avoid looming price hikes.

The brakes are screeching on a month-long downward gas-price trend that cut the average price at the pump by 16 cents a gallon in Florida, according to travel club AAA.

The decline continued over the weekend, but had trickled to a barely-noticeable two-tenths of a cent between Sunday and Monday.

Unleaded gas was selling for an average $2.30 a gallon in the state on Monday, down two cents from the previous Monday.

Analysts expect prices to begin chugging in the opposite direction this week as the Memorial Day travel weekend draws near.

The price climb has already begun nationally. Motorists across the U.S. were paying an average $2.36 a gallon Monday, up two cents compared to a week ago.

All eyes are on a meeting of OPEC nations on Thursday, where members will discuss extending production cuts agreed to in November. That agreement lifted crude oil prices above $50 a barrel for several months until U.S. oil producers increased their output, swelling inventories.

Meanwhile, projections for the most-traveled Memorial Day weekend in more than a decade could push prices higher this week, but not excessively, AAA said.

“If prices do surge, it is unlikely they would exceed 10 cents by the holiday,” AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said. “Regardless, most Americans have already locked in their holiday plans, and any movement at the pump should not be dramatic enough to convince travelers to stay home.”

Average prices in the tricounty region, as usual, exceeded the state average because of higher costs and local taxes in the region.

Broward County’s average price matched the national average — $2.36 — a penny less than a week ago. The average price in Palm Beach County was $2.42, unchanged from the previous week. And Miami-Dade County’s average price, $2.37, was a penny less than a week ago.

Plenty of South Florida gas stations were selling well below average prices on Monday, according to the price-comparison website GasBuddy.com.

In Palm Beach County, the lowest available price available without a wholesale club membership was $2.13 at Rocket Fuel on U.S. 1 and Palmetto Drive in Lake Park, across the street from a 7-Eleven selling for $2.15. Further south, several stations still had gas for $2.19, particularly along North Military Trail, North Congress Avenue and Blue Heron Boulevard in the West Palm Beach area.

The lowest price in Broward County was $2.17 at U-Gas on East Commercial Avenue at Northeast 12th Avenue in Pompano Beach, according to GasBuddy.com. Numerous stations in the county still had gas ranging from $2.18 to $2.21, particularly along East Commercial Boulevard and East Oakland Park Boulevard east of Interstate 95, and along Pines Boulevard, Pembroke Road and Miramar Parkway west of Florida’s Turnpike.

The lowest price reported in Miami-Dade County was $2.17 at an Amerika station at Northwest 167th Street and Northwest 42nd Avenue in Miami Lakes.