Forecasts of a windy and chilly Wednesday in the Northeast were enough to give a small boost to citygates there, but otherwise the market Tuesday continued the trend of mild softness that has prevailed since last Friday.

Responding to continued futures weakness and the lack of severe cold in most areas, non-Northeast points ranged from flat to down about 15 cents, with a large majority of losses being less than a dime.

The largest declines of a dime or more tended to cluster in the Rockies. Kern River was symptomatic of that market’s weakness by reporting that its linepack was remaining high again this week after having eased to normal last week.

A marketer in the Upper Midwest gave a clue to that area’s softness when he said that despite five inches of snow the previous day, it was “unusually warm” in his city Tuesday with a high of nearly 40 degrees. “The snow is melting fast,” he added.

A Florida utility buyer who said she had done no deals Tuesday noted that “lots of rain is keeping us cooled off.”

Pacific Gas & Electric was bracing for what meteorologists called the worst winter storm of the season to hit its service territory in northern and central California starting early Wednesday morning and continuing through Thursday evening. The utility’s underground gas infrastructure is unlikely to be affected, but PG&E said power outages are possible because wind gusts of 50-70 mph are expected for as long as six to eight hours during the storm’s most intense period. Despite the potential loss of electric load, prices fell only slightly more than a nickel at Malin and the PG&E citygate, possibly due to the mountain-area snows expected with the storm.

A Gulf Coast marketer reflected consensus opinion in reporting that it’s still a “very slow” market. “Sorry, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon,” he added. The marketer didn’t know why, but said he was finding it hard to get any buying interest going for March business, which he had to assume indicates that a lot of people plan to go with swing supplies through the month.

A Midwestern buyer provided partial confirmation of the marketer’s suspicion by saying he didn’t plan any March baseload purchases. He said he already has a good amount of term gas under contract and will pick up other needs on a daily basis, especially since he anticipates considerable price weakness in the aftermarket.

In its forecast for the March 1-5 workweek, the National Weather Service expects normal temperatures for most of the U.S. east of a line running from Minnesota’s western border through East Texas. The only above normal conditions it sees for the East will be in the Northeast and peninsular Florida along with southern Georgia. The agency also predicted above normal mercury levels for western Washington state and northwestern Oregon. Otherwise, the rest of the region west of that Minnesota-Texas line should be below normal, NWS said, except for normal temperatures due in a strip from northern California to western Montana.

Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll said Tuesday he was revising his previous storage estimate for the week ending Feb. 20 from a 105 Bcf withdrawal (see Daily GPI, Feb. 24) to a 155 Bcf withdrawal “due to a one-time error in adjusting heating degree days. Last week’s weather was roughly 8.2% colder, not 8.2% warmer than normal as we had stated in yesterday’s note. We have adjusted heating degree days (by 8.2%) to account for the 39-hour difference between the periods covered by NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] when calculating weekly heating degree days and the weekly storage withdrawal period.”

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