Gas prices near 1981's inflation-adjusted record high

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular is $3.09, the Lundberg Survey found. That's just 9 cents below the record set in May.

The latest price is also 9 cents below the inflation-adjusted all-time high, said survey publisher Trilby Lundberg. In 1981, the price peaked at $1.35 -- which, in today's dollars, comes out to $3.10 using the latest Consumer Price Index data, she said.

Don't be surprised if the records are shattered in the coming weeks, Lundberg said. Even if crude oil doesn't climb further, "we can easily see another dime at the pump," she said, "because refiners are severely squeezed between their oil buying price and their gasoline selling price."

The survey looked at thousands of gas stations nationwide on Friday, two weeks after the previous survey. The lowest average price for a gallon of self-serve regular was in Tucson, Ariz., at $2.91; the highest was in San Francisco, at $3.48.

Here are prices in some other cities:

Des Moines, Iowa - $3.02

Manchester, N.H. - $2.97

Houston - $2.90

St. Louis - 2.96

Salt Lake City - $2.97

Atlanta - $3.03

Washington - $3.08

Portland, Ore. - $3.10

Miami - $3.17

Hartford, Conn. - $3.20