With the latest weather model runs continuing to advertise a shift to frigid temperatures to start the new year, natural gas futures climbed in early trading Wednesday. The January Nymex contract was up 14.2 cents to $4.011/MMBtu at around 8:55 a.m. ET.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The latest data from the American and European weather models continued to show intense cold dropping into the Lower 48 during the first five days of January, NatGasWeather said early Wednesday.

During this period, “frosty air spreads out of the Northern Plains and across the rest of the Midwest, Ohio Valley and Northeast, surging forecast national demand to the strongest levels so far this winter season,” the firm said.

It will be critical to monitor whether this early January cold pattern holds in upcoming model runs...