Impact on gas prices for Thanksgiving travel

AccuWeather

GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan gives the latest update on the impact of gas prices as he offers tips for those planning to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday this week.

Transcript

00:00GasBuddy is projecting a big jump in the number of Americans on the road this year.

00:06Patrick DeHaan is the head of petroleum analysis for the gas price tracking website

00:14GasBuddy and thank you so much for joining us here today. What is

00:18GasBuddy predicting for Thanksgiving road trips this year over last year?

00:24Well certainly a lot more folks on the road. 72 percent of Americans that they're going to be

00:29hitting the road for Thanksgiving. Not a huge surprise this time the gas prices really have

00:33been declining the last couple of months so pack some patience especially if you're leaving

00:38Wednesday that's going to be the peak travel period as folks take off a little bit early

00:43from work Wednesday afternoon into Wednesday evening and then again Sunday afternoon as

00:49Americans come back home you're going to have a lot of fellow travelers out there with you but

00:53the good news is that gas prices have been declining. Now some states have seen some

00:58increases in the last week New Jersey's up about nine cents a gallon that leads increases but

01:03the national average is at its lowest level since 2021 and it's the cheapest Thanksgiving

01:10since the pandemic Thanksgiving of 2020. So not a bad time to hit the road 30 states where you'll

01:16find average gas prices below three dollars a gallon. And I guess the question is sir why

01:22why are some of the what are some of the factors that are influenced the prices at the pump?

01:28Well a lot of what we're seeing right now is seasonal gas prices have come down in most

01:33states over the last couple of months Americans simply don't drive as much and we see some of

01:36the winter conditions that you're showing it's because of that that Americans tend to gravitate

01:41to stay a little closer to home now the exception obviously Thanksgiving but even with us traveling

01:46Wednesday and Sunday in very high numbers most Americans park they don't have school or work

01:52really on Thursday Friday Saturday so demand for gasoline is actually a little bit lower and it's

01:57that drop in seasonal demand that we can thank for lower gas prices this Thanksgiving this is

02:02the trend by the way these low prices should stick around on and off really through the end of the

02:07year. Well that's what I was going to ask you could you even go beyond that what what do you

02:11think that the gas prices are going to do so you think it continues to come down toward the end of

02:17the year what about in 2025? Well you know I do think that there's a continued trend national

02:23average has been really trying to get below the three dollar gallon mark something that we haven't

02:28seen since 2021 we've kind of been bouncing around we're at about 304 today I think by the end of

02:34the year we still have probably a 50-50 shot of getting below the three dollar mark January and

02:39February also we could see some states basically the inland areas the Great Lakes Rockies and

02:45Midwest could see lower prices in January and February again that's because the height of the

02:51winter is reducing demand in those areas so wait till January February but by the time Valentine's

02:58Day comes and goes that's when we'll start to see seasonal increases by the way 2025 probably

03:04is going to be a little bit lower than 2024 but it's going to feel very similar. All right Patrick

03:10Jahan head of Petroleum Analysis for GasBuddy.com thank you for joining us here on AccuWeather Early

03:17and Happy Thanksgiving. To you as well.

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