The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gas prices
$2.15-per-gallon gas at the Dunwoody Costco before a planned round trip drive to South Carolina.
Still, forecasts call for things to revert pretty much to form right around the time you (should) kick your Christmas tree to the curb.
“We may see moderate increases at the pump this week, but the downward trend should resume in the new year,” Mark Jenkins, a spokesman for AAA — The Auto Club Group, said last Wednesday. That was midway through the 10-day period when a record-breaking 107 million Americans were predicted to be traveling, the bulk of them (97.4 million) by automobile. “After the holidays, gasoline takes a sharp turn lower because fewer people take extended road trips in January.”
That’s welcome news to metro Atlantans like Roberto Castillo.
“I believe it will be good for business,” Castillo said while pumping $30 worth of fuel into a truck from Castle Painting & Remodeling — one of 10 vehicles belonging to the company owned by his brother. At $2.24 per gallon, the price was right at the busy Kroger location on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs. Still, it was the cost of fueling his personal vehicle going forward that had the Marietta resident sounding hopeful — if ever watchful.
“I do worry (about the price of gas),” said Castillo, who estimated he fills up twice a week. “But what are you going to do? You have to have gas.”
Making longer-range gas price forecasts is a bit like trying to predict the weather months from now. And in fact, along with oil prices, weather is one of the variables that can have a major impact on what we pay at the pump — or even whether we get to pay it at all. Exhibit A: 2017’s onetwo punch of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. On Sept. 8, nearly two weeks after Harvey first hit Texas, gas hit its highest average price nationwide for the entire year at $2.67 per gallon. In Georgia, the single-day high, $2.76 per gallon, came on Sept. 12, two days after Irma had slammed into the Florida Keys and begun its march toward Georgia along with thousands of fleeing Floridians.
“Hurricanes definitely fall into the less predictable category,” chuckled Gas Buddy’s DeHann, who nonetheless sees progress from 2005, when Hurricane Katrina caused gas to soar to over $5 per gallon in Georgia and created panic as many stations ran dry. “With Irma, there was an insatiable demand for gas, but a lot of thought was put into the response to that. Governments are getting much better with that.”