Summer has officially gotten under way, and many people are feeling it. With hot weather starting to pervade most of the U.S. except the Northeast and the upper half of the West, prices managed to rally Monday at most points in the Midcontinent and West and saw little change either up or down in the rest of the East.

The general bullishness in the cash market was reinforced by the return of industrial load from its weekend hiatus and was relatively unaffected by the previous Friday’s drop of 6.1 cents by July futures.

Most of the losses of 2-3 cents to a little more than a dime occurred in the Gulf Coast. Otherwise quotes ranged from flat to a little more than 95 cents. The largest gains were concentrated in the Rockies and desert Southwest, where peak temperatures Tuesday are forecast to range from the low 90s to the mid 100s.

Negative screen guidance will remain in effect for Tuesday’s cash market after the prompt-month natural gas futures contract fell another 9.9 cents Monday (see related story).

Excess supply issues were easing in the West. PG&E is ending a two-day high-inventory OFO Tuesday (see Transportation Notes), and El Paso said around midday Monday its linepack had returned to normal after still being undesirably high through that morning.

High linepack was hardly a problem in the southeastern corner of the nation, however. With highs in southern Florida approaching the 100-degree mark, Florida Gas Transmission still had in effect an Overage Alert Day for market-area customers that began last week through at least Monday. Although production-area numbers into Florida Gas saw little impact, the Florida citygate recorded the day’s biggest gain, and its average of about $6.20 easily exceeded any other prices by nearly $2.

Although high heat levels are predicted to continue in most areas for a while, some locations in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic will have highs retreating into the 80s Tuesday. And mild to cool conditions remain in the forecast for much of Canada, the West Coast, the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast.

“It’s like a light switch around here,” said a utility buyer in the Lower Midwest. One day the area is nearly freezing, and a few days later it’s hot and muggy, which is the current situation, she said. Locally it’s been a “very long spring,” she said, noting that temperatures were still limited to the 50s as recently as a couple of weeks ago but were now peaking in the mid to high 90s. The forecast doesn’t show any break in the heat at least through the end of this week, she added.

Electric generation load has become noticeably stronger for the utility in the last few days, the buyer said, but a new coal-fired unit in the area is limiting the increase in gas demand.

A Texas-based marketer expects Monday’s Nymex weakness to take cash prices down “a little bit” Tuesday, saying this week’s strength in cooling load will not be enough to prevent a new market downturn.

His company is starting to get ready for bidweek trading, he said, but he hasn’t heard any July numbers yet. It’s still too early to make a call on whether first-of-month indexes are likely to be up or down, he said.

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