Wednesday’s market outside the Northeast was a repeat of Tuesday’s: nearly all points less than a dime up or down from flat. Meanwhile, Northeast citygates made their second reversal of price direction in as many days, but rising by only double-digit amounts this time instead of ringing up multi-dollar moves as on Monday and Tuesday.

Many points were unchanged for the second straight day. Gains ran as high as about 75 cents at Transco Zone 6-New York City but were limited to less than 45 cents elsewhere. Losses were in the minority and ranged from 2-3 cents to a little more than 15 cents.

The U.S. will have a patchwork quilt of warming and cooling trends Thursday. Temperatures will be dropping substantially in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, Rockies and desert Southwest. They will be rising in the South and Lower Midwest. Most of the West outside of the Rockies and Southwest will experience relatively little change.

Significant snowfalls remain in the forecast for the Upper Midwest and Rockies, but except for the possibility of some lingering light snow in southeastern New England, most of the Northeast will be dry, The Weather Channel said. Following the Upper Midwest snow, bitterly cold air will invade the north-central states with highs staying below zero in much of North Dakota and northwest Minnesota, it added.

The Midcontinent was something of a special case. For instance, Oklahoma City’s high will drop by five degrees Thursday while the low falls about 18, according to Madison, WI-based Weather Central. However, over in Tulsa the forecaster predicts that the high will rise a little more than 10 degrees while the low falls by about 14.

A lack of prior-day screen support for the cash market will continue after March futures shed another 4.8 cents Wednesday.

Northern Natural’s Ventura point recorded one of the few dime-plus advances outside the Northeast as the pipeline issued another System Overrun Limitation (SOL) for Thursday (see Transportation Notes), only a day after lifting a previous SOL. Northern had signaled the potential for such action with Monday’s projection of system-weighted temperature averages through Thursday (see Daily GPI, Feb. 12). As of Wednesday Northern was expecting weighted averages of 3 degrees Thursday and zero Friday before a major rebound to 22 Saturday.

Sumas also moved more than a dime, but in the downward direction. The Sumas premium to Northwest-domestic, which had been more than a dollar as recently as a week earlier, narrowed to less than 40 cents Wednesday.

Although Northern Natural is adding a transportation constraint Thursday, MRT is removing one (see Transportation Notes).

In its six- to 10-day forecast for the Feb. 18-22 period, the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted below-normal temperatures everywhere east of a line running southward along the eastern edge of the Dakotas through eastern Nebraska and Kansas before curving to the southwest through western Oklahoma to the Big Bend area of Texas along the Mexican border. NWS looks for above-normal readings everywhere west of a line running south-southeast through western North Dakota, central South Dakota and central Nebraska before curving back to the southwest through eastern Kansas and the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles to the far western tip of Texas.

Barclays Capital analysts George Hopley and Michael Zenker expect a 113 Bcf storage withdrawal to be reported for the week ending Feb. 8. Looking further ahead, Citigroup’s Tim Evans projected storage draws of 135 Bcf, 165 Bcf and 140 Bcf for the weeks ending Feb. 8, Feb. 15 and Feb. 22, respectively.

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