The cash market finally bowed to futures weakness by falling at nearly all points Thursday despite some increases in heating load due Friday. Even with low temperatures predicted to reach sub-freezing levels at some locations in the northern sections of the South, it appeared that many buyers preferred to start tapping their storage accounts rather than procure more expensive spot gas.

Flat numbers at Sumas and a gain of a little more than C5 cents at Westcoast Station 2 reflected forecasts of low temperatures not far above freezing in the Pacific Northwest. But they were buried beneath overall losses ranging from a little more than a nickel to slightly more than a quarter that were spread pretty evenly throughout the market.

Cash traders can again expect negative futures guidance for weekend prices after Nymex’s January gas contract extended this week’s losing streak by falling another 7.1 cents (see related story). Henry Hub continued to trade at a rare premium to the screen, with its average of a little more than $4.55 exceeding the prompt-month contract by a dime or so.

Storage injections “ran the table” for November, as pool players might say, in posting net builds throughout the month after the traditional withdrawal season began Nov. 1. The Energy Information Administration reported a build of 2 Bcf for the week ending Nov. 27, which was in line with some analysts’ predictions but ran contrary to those expecting the first storage pull of the 2009-10 winter.

Forecasts of below-normal temperatures were starting to recede in the National Weather Service’s six- to 10-day forecast, which looks for such conditions only in most of the Midwest through the relatively sparsely populated regions of the Upper Plains and Pacific Northwest during the Dec. 9-13 period.

Cold weather-related pipeline flow restrictions remained at zero despite The Weather Channel’s (TWC) prediction of wintry weather invading the South Friday and Saturday. One reason was that the Northeast was expected to stay a bit warmer than the South through at least Friday. But although temperatures were fairly moderate Thursday afternoon along the East Coast (and even warm in the Florida peninsula), that won’t last long for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, The Weather Channel warned.

Meanwhile, cold to frigid conditions dominated the rest of the weather outlook, with even the desert Southwest dipping into the 40s Friday, according to the Weather Central forecasting firm.

It may have befuddled Houston-area traders who were still enjoying light jacket-type weather Thursday afternoon, but the lead story in that day’s Houston Chronicle carried the headline “More than a snowball’s chance in Houston” as local forecasts continued to call for the chance of snow flurries Friday afternoon.

A utility buyer in the South said his company was starting to see “our first big gas flow days of the season.” It has been making relatively small storage withdrawals of 25,000 MMBtu/d since early in the week from both of its pipeline storage accounts, he said; on a normal cold winter day the draws would be more like 100,000 MMBtu/d. But in a bearish near-term signal for prices, he said the area forecast was for a warm-up to begin early next week, with the coldest days expected to be Friday and Saturday.

A Southwest utility buyer said he was making some spot gas purchases for power production, but only in relatively small amounts despite a few western nuclear outages.

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