A more frigid outlook overnight from one of the major weather models saw natural gas futures extend their recent gains in early trading Friday. After posting a 24.7-cent rally in the previous session, the March Nymex contract was up another 26.7 cents to $4.550/MMBtu at around 8:45 a.m. ET.

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The European weather model underwent “another sizable colder change” overnight that brought it into better agreement with the chillier outlook from the American modeling, according to Bespoke Weather Services.

“We have discussed previously how forcing signals did not seem to suggest a continued sustainable cold pattern beyond the first few days of February, but so far that idea simply is not working out,” Bespoke said. “What we see of the opening third of February looks quite cold...