It was such a short time ago — last month to be specific — that gasoline prices kept falling. Was it so far-fetched to speculate that gas could drop below $3 a gallon?

Yes.

Gasoline prices have risen more than 20 cents since then, and last week price trackers told USA Today to expect gasoline at $4 a gallon by this spring.

Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service told the newspaper that this spring will be chaotic, with huge price increases in some places and a peak average price of $4.05 a gallon.

Other analysts made similar predictions.

“As soon as it goes down a little, they up the price,” said William Morin, owner of the Morin Sunoco service station on Valley Street in Manchester. Morin monitors prices around the city. When he took a delivery last Monday, prices were up 6 to 8 cents a gallon.

“As soon as the (service station) tanks are filled up, prices go down,” he bemoaned.

Not everyone agrees with predictions of $4-per-gallon gas.

For example, the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said there is about a 1-in-4 chance that the average pump price of gas will exceed $4 a gallon in June.

The more mainstream prediction of the Energy Department has gasoline averaging $3.55 a gallon this year, just a little more than what it is now. The price should increase about 7 cents a gallon from April to September, the peak driving season, the Energy Department said.

Morin, who's been in the retail gas trade for decades, wouldn't make a prediction.

“For 80 years we've been doing this thing,” he said about gasoline prices. “There's nothing we can do.”

In the summer of 2008, gasoline topped $4 a gallon in New Hampshire.

“The gas prices changed driving habits of people, which I think we still see today. Travelers stay close to home and pack more activities into a trip to maximize the value,” said Tai Freligh, spokesman for the New Hampshire Division of Travel and Tourism.

When gasoline hit $4, New Hampshire travel officials launched a marketing campaign that highlighted what could be done on a tank of gas. They also created Yankee Dollar-Stretchers, offers from the tourism industry that included gas cards, discounts for driving hybrid cars and other deals related to gas prices.

At present, most Dollar-Stretchers amount to lodging deals in snow-starved ski country.

“If the gas prices continue to rise, I would not be surprised if we started getting gas price-related specials on that (web) page again,” Freligh said.

Analysts in USA Today said tensions in the Middle East are bolstering crude prices and speculators are betting on supply disruptions. But Morin disputes much of that.

The eastern United States gets most of its oil from Venezuela, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, he said.