Gas prices are on the rise nationwide, hitting an eight-month high as much of the country deals with scorching temperatures. 

On Monday, the national average for regular gasoline was nearly $3.76 a gallon, according to AAA.

The average price at the pump rose 13 cents in a week when it hit $3.71 on Thursday last week. That price marked the highest average since Nov. 2022. 

“We've seen gas prices advancing at their fastest pace of the year,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in an interview with Spectrum News on Monday. 

De Haan said the reason for the “sudden jump” in price is twofold: the increased cost of oil related to Russia and Saudi Arabia cutting production and issues at refineries stemming from soaring temperatures. 

“We've seen heat related outages at some of the largest refineries in the country in the last couple of weeks in Texas and Louisiana at a time that gasoline demand is at its highest and gasoline inventories are at their lowest July levels since 2015,” he said. 

About half of the nation’s refining capacity is in Louisiana and Texas and six of the refineries in those states are experiencing heat-related outages, De Haan told Spectrum News in an interview last week.

Costs at the pump are still significantly below the record highs of last year, when the average price for a gallon of gas topped $5 in June 2022. 

De Haan said he doesn’t expect to see the trend reverse soon. He expects foreign countries to continue production cuts and noted the “peak of hurricane season” in mid-August could cause more disruption. 

“We may see prices going up between now and September,” he said, adding the U.S. switches to “cheaper winter gasoline” on Sept. 16. 

Spectrum News' Susan Carpenter contributed to this report.