Planning a car trip this holiday weekend? Gas prices are up again

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- Just in time for the holiday weekend, gas prices are once again steadily rising in Southern California.

After 16 days of increases, however, some relief could be on the horizon.

The Auto Club says a gallon of regular unleaded in Los Angeles costs an average of $4.78 - that's up 28 cents from a month ago.

We saw a similar increase last year around this time, and then prices really skyrocketed amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"We have seen gas prices starting to creep up over the past couple of weeks across much of the West Coast, whereas the national average is down the past two weeks," said Patrick De Haan, an analyst with GasBuddy.

He notes that California is one of the first states to transition to the more expensive summer formula for gas, which burns cleaner. Refineries also do maintenance this time of year, making supplies tighter.

But oil prices have gone down in recent days, so gasoline may drop by a few pennies.

"Very short term, oil prices have taken a big hit, and that could bring some relief this weekend before prices begin going up down the road," he said.

The national average price for gasoline hit a record $5.016 on June 14 of last year, but since then has dropped by $1.595.