Cincy gas prices jumped more than 10 cents last week

Excitement over the arrival of warm temperatures to Greater Cincinnati might be tempered a bit by rising gasoline prices.

As of Monday, gas prices in Cincinnati had risen 10.1 cents per gallon in just a week's time. The local average is around $2.42, according to GasBuddy.com. The cost of local gas is still cheaper than the national average of $2.43, but fluctuations around the Queen City continue to be steeper than in other parts of the country.

The national average climbed by less than half a cent over the same period, according to GasBuddy.

Cincinnati has seen worse, of course. In February, Cincinnatians were forced to cope with a 25-cent increase in gas prices that took hold overnight.

"One thing seems constant in this world aside from death and taxes, and that's gas price fluctuations," said GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan. "(While) many any areas didn't see much fluctuation, there certainly were some outliers last week, as there almost always tend to be week after week."

Along with Ohio, Florida and Indiana experienced sharp increases.

While the cause of rising or falling gas prices can vary, some might have noticed a prevailing pattern – that prices peak higher and sink lower in Cincinnati than in other parts of the country. The Great Lakes region, of which Southwest Ohio is a part, typically sees the lowest lows and highest highs in the country during periods of fluctuating prices, Gasbuddy senior petroleum analyst Gregg Laskoski told The Enquirer during a February interview.

Mostly, Laskoski said, the Cincinnati price hikes are the result of price cycling.

Laskoski said price cycling is the process by which brands with a heavy regional presence – Marathon and Kroger in Greater Cincinnati, for example – and will drop gas prices. Sometimes the prices drop to the point that a company's profit margin is eliminated. This puts pressure on national brands with a presence in a given market to lower their prices. Inevitably, the regional brands raise prices to maximize profits.

GasBuddy compiles its data by surveying 637 Cincinnati gas stations daily, according to a Monday release.