OK, everyone probably knows about this site but it is the coolest thing I have found in a long time. It visually shows the mem pool statistics, size, the fees people are paying, etc.
over time. Click here and see the beautiful color graphics for the last three months:
https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#BTC,3mYes, look at the third graph down, mem pool size, and notice how high it is (225 MB). This large amount of transactions has to be squeezed into the limited size blocks - therefore the amount you need to pay to get your transaction in the blocks goes up.
You can adjust the time window. You can also see the fees being paid on other crypto (ETH, BCH, etc.) to see how they compare to BTC.
So cool. Donating to the site author now...