Hot weather throughout most of the U.S. (with the exception of mild conditions in the Upper Midwest) spurred price increases ranging from about a nickel to 15 cents at nearly all points Monday. Continuation of firming numbers was in doubt, however, due to cold fronts in the Midwest and approaching the Northeast, with the one in the Midwest due to push on into the South over the next day or two.

Some may have suspected “storm hype” as a factor in Monday’s upticks, but several traders told NGI they were unable to detect any such influence in the market. There are unlikely to be any suspicions Tuesday since the National Hurricane Center downgraded Tropical Depression Six to a tropical wave Monday afternoon and said tropical storm watches and/or warnings had been discontinued for several eastern Caribbean islands. NHC also said it would issue no further public advisories for the system unless regeneration occurs. (FYI, the next system to get named status will be called Erika.)

What was left of TD Six was moving westward at nearly 24 mph over the far eastern Caribbean Sea and adjacent islands of the Lesser Antilles chain as of 5 p.m. AST (Atlantic Standard Time), NHC said.

High temperatures in the mid 80s or greater dominated the weather picture in the East Monday, while North Texas and southern Oklahoma joined a vast swath of the West that extended from the desert Southwest as far north as parts of the Pacific Northwest in experiencing triple-digit highs. The West is expected to keep feeling the heat this week, but the cold fronts and associated rain storms will lower thermometer readings in much of the East as midweek nears.

A Northeast utility buyer reported seeing a “bump up” in cash prices Monday, but he was rather surprised that regional power generation load didn’t seem especially strong, certainly “not what you would expect with this heat we’ve got.” Rains will cool off the Northeast a little later this week, he said, “but not by much, maybe five degrees or so.” A basically flat screen during the morning furnished no guidance for the cash market, the buyer added, and he was hearing that a “technical correction” was what caused a moderate Nymex run-up in the afternoon. He foresees little price volatility for a while unless a tropical storm manages to reach the Gulf of Mexico.

A Calgary-based producer reported trading intra-Alberta gas for August in the mid C$5.80s, about a dime above his average in Monday’s swing deals. The weather is “really nice in the low 80s” around Calgary, he said, adding, “It’s times like these that we endure six months of winter hell to enjoy.”

It was a “lackluster” trading day for a western marketer. Temperatures are warming up a little even on the California coast, “but most of the real heat is still inland,” she said. Price spreads are getting wider, especially from Kingsgate to Malin, the marketer went on. To her that indicated greater gas demand in the southern half of California.

Another western trader agreed that the market was “pretty quiet” except for a lot of electric generation load in the super-hot Southwest.

One source looks for this week’s storage report from the Energy Information Administration to be “an even bigger deal than usual,” saying people will expect a significantly smaller injection volume this time due to Hurricane Claudette cutting more than 8 Bcf of production last week, according to the federal Minerals Management Service.

A producer reported getting lots of calls for supply from Florida buyers, who were subject to an Overage Alert Day notice again by Florida Gas Transmission (see Transportation Notes). He regretted having nothing to sell them, explaining that “most of our gas is already spoken for in baseload deals.”

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