A slightly more positive set of weather fundamentals kept flat numbers dominant in weekend trading Friday. There was a slight bias toward the downside, but few points fell by more than 1-2 cents.

Florida citygates recorded the only plunge of a little more than 40 cents, as recent subnormal temperatures continued to moderate in the state, although Florida Gas Transmission kept a low-linepack notice for its market area going into at least its 10th straight day Friday.

Markets seeing modest gains included intra-Alberta and Westcoast Station 2 points, influenced by the cessation of a high-linepack situation on NOVA. Canadian numbers also benefited from their screen-following tendency because February futures were up a few cents during the morning, one trader said.

A western trader said PG&E’s linepack apparently was in good shape again, and he was relieved not to have to worry about another OFO over the weekend.

Although no severe winter weather was expected, sources in several regions reported mild cooling trends developing over the weekend. That and a small screen advance helped negate much of the typical demand decline over a weekend, they said. However, big weakness in the crude oil and heating oil futures contracts could prove to be a drag on gas today, one added.

The trend was toward higher prices as trading went on, traders in the East and West said. Transco Zone 6-NYC began in the high $2.50s, but had reached the high $2.70s near deadline, a buyer said. And a marketer quoting the PG&E citygate from the mid $2.10s through the low $2.20s said a $2.25 deal got done on ICE after he had finished.

Although it wasn’t posted to the National Weather Service’s web site until late Thursday afternoon, too late to influence that day’s cash trading, the NWS forecast for the five-day period beginning this Wednesday likely warmed at least a few bulls’ hearts. It called for below normal temperatures over almost the entire U.S. except for the sparsely populated Upper Plains, the Florida peninsula and “the three News” of the Northeast — New York, New Jersey and New England. The excepted areas were expected to see normal weather; “normal,” of course, for the middle of January. (On Friday the normal areas were expanded slightly to include South Texas, southern Georgia and the Carolinas coast.)

However, a Midcontinent producer reported seeing conflicting forecasts for this week between government and private sector meteorologists. The government was saying a lot colder, but the private people indicated not so cold, she said. Each side had “low confidence” disclaimers on their forecasts, so that leaves the situation kind of a toss-up.

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