Huge gas-price jump overnight

A quick news blurb courtesy AAA Mid-Atlantic: Gas prices hurtled overnight, up an average of six cents a gallon from Thursday.

The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded in Virginia went from $3.10 on Thursday to $3.16 this morning. A month ago today a gallon of regular unleaded in Virginia cost $3.02. A year ago, a gallon cost $2.59, according to AAA.

The one-day jump illustrates the correlation between pump prices and crude oil prices, AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesperson Windy Van Curen said.

“Although price jumps of this magnitude are highly unusual, when crude oil prices escalate as quickly as they have, this becomes more common and could become a pattern in the coming days,” Van Curen said.

Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at [email protected].