Let me say up front that the following is an unscientific "snapshot" of retail gasoline prices recorded yesterday, Sept. 12, from 15 cities across the country.

For what it's worth we looked at a random selection of cities to identify the current average price and the swing between the lowest and highest prices in 15 markets... In the east, we recorded the prices for Tampa, Atlanta, Baltimore, Raleigh, and New York. In the Midwest we checked Cleveland, Louisville, Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit. On the west coast we included Portland, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, San Diego and Phoenix.

If you're handicapping the outcome, you might expect that the largest cities would have the greatest gaps between the highest and lowest retail prices, and often they do... But, there are a few surprises. New York had a 92-cent swing and Atlanta recorded an 82-cent gap between the highest and lowest prices in their respective markets.

Of the west coast cities sampled, San Diego recorded an 82-cent difference between its highest and lowest retail gasoline prices posted Sept. 12.

But it was the midwest region that recorded the highest price differential. Chicago had an average price yesterday of $4.00 per gallon, with a high of $4.49 and a low of $3.72 per gallon, a 77-cent swing from the highest to lowest price. Detroit notched a 67-cent difference between its highest and lowest price at the pump yesterday and St. Louis saw a 67-cent gap.

Overall, the five cities in the midwest recorded a retail price swing yesterday that averaged 60.4 cents per gallon edging the east coast cities' average gap of 59.6 cents per gallon. The five western cities had an average price differential (between highest and lowest prices in each city) of 46.2 cents per gallon.

Remember, it's only a snapshot. Some cities are obviously much larger than others in this sample... Salt Lake City, for instance, had only a 27-cent gap between its lowest and highest retail gasoline price. At the same time, if the east coast did not include New York City's 92-cent differential and we had included Syracuse or Buffalo instead, the 92-cent gap would have changed to 37 and/or 38 cents respectively, giving the Midwest an even wider margin in the volatility index!

Out of curiosity I have to ask something:

Is anybody in the Midwest surprised by these numbers?
Many of you continue to let us know when and where price spikes occur and we're grateful for your diligence.