After weeks of drops — and after no change last week — average retail gasoline prices in the Nashville area rose 10.8 cents during the past week, averaging $3.27 per gallon as of Sunday, according to gasoline price website NashvilleGasPrices.com.

This compares with the national average of $3.49, a rise of 4.9 cents.

Nashville prices yesterday were 31.2 cents per gallon lower than they were on the same day one year ago and 11.1 cents per gallon lower than they were four weeks ago. The national average has increased 2.4 cents per gallon during the last four weeks and stands 20.1 cents per gallon lower than on this day one year ago.

"Gasoline prices continue to rise across much of the nation, which is precisely what we had forecast earlier this year, so it does not come as much of a shock," GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan said in a release. "Either way, I don't expect the national average to break out of its mid-$3 per gallon rut until mid-to-late September. Then we may get some action to the downside."

GasBuddy operates NashvilleGasPrices.com and more than 250 similar websites that track gasoline prices at approximately 140,000 gasoline stations in the United States and Canada.