Gasoline prices have finally fallen below $4 per gallon at many of the local fuel stations.

As of Monday, the cheapest reported gas in Brookhaven was $3.96 per gallon, at the Murphy USA station on Brookway Boulevard. Other stations with gas at $3.98 or $3.99 included Exxon and Blue Sky on Brookway, Shell and Chevron on Hwy. 84, Shell on East Lincoln Road and Texaco on Hwy. 51.

The cheapest price in the state Monday was in Poplarville — $3.39 at Ramey’s Market, according to GasBuddy.com. The state’s average price is $4.02.

The national average gas price has fallen for the fifth consecutive week, down 15.8 cents per gallon this past week to $4.51 Monday. GasBuddy compiles data from more than 11 million individual reports on 150,000 fueling stations across the nation.

The national average is down 47.9 cents from one month ago, though still $1.35 per gallon higher than one year ago.

“We’ve seen the national average price of gasoline decline for a fifth straight week, with the pace of recent declines accelerating to some of the most significant we’ve seen in years,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “This trend is likely to reach a sixth straight week, with prices likely to fall again this week. Barring major hurricanes, outages or unexpected disruptions, I forecast the national average to fall to $3.99 per gallon by mid-August.”

The national average has dropped for 34 straight days, with more than 25,000 stations now at $3.99 per gallon or less.

“In addition, we will see several states fall back under an average of $4, the majority being in the South, but that could spread to more states in the weeks ahead,” De Haan said.

According to GasBuddy demand data, U.S. retail gasoline demand saw a rise in the past week, as the peak of the summer driving season nears. Nationally, weekly gasoline demand rose 3.3 percent from the prior week.

The most expensive 10 percent of stations in the U.S. average $5.71 per gallon. The bottom 10 percent average $3.82 per gallon. States with the highest average prices Monday were California, $5.89; Hawaii, $5.52; and Alaska, $5.36. The lowest average prices were found in South Carolina, $3.99; Texas, $4.01; and Mississippi, $4.02.