U.S. retail gasoline demand rose last week as much of the country thawed out from weeks of winter storms, MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse report showed Wednesday.

Average gasoline demand climbed 4.5 percent, to 8.847 million barrels-per-day in the week ended Feb. 18.

Year-over-year, demand rose 0.8 percent, the sixth straight increase this year.

Over the latest four weeks, U.S. gasoline consumption rose 2.5 percent year-over-year.

Retail gasoline prices rose 2 cents last week, to $3.15, the highest price since October 2008 and 21.2 percent higher than a year earlier, MasterCard said.

MasterCard Advisors estimates retail gasoline demand based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments system coupled with estimates for all other payment forms including cash and checks. MasterCard Advisors is a unit of MasterCard Inc.