Spot natural gas prices softened coming back from the Memorial Day holiday even as power burns escalated in response to falling wind generation throughout the week. Led by the West Coast, NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. fell 19.5 cents during the May 31-June 3 period to $8.145/MMBtu.

Natural gas futures, meanwhile, continued to be tossed around like a ragdoll. Against the backdrop of large production swings, a hotter late June forecast and a pesky storage deficit that has shown few signs of improvement, the July Nymex gas closed out the week at $8.523, up 37.8 cents from Tuesday’s settlement.

With the most significant heat in the southern United States, prices there did not post quite as steep declines as some other areas of the country. In addition to the seasonal rise...