After generally leveling off Wednesday, the market recorded small gains at a large majority of points Thursday. Forecasts indicated that chillier conditions would be returning in some areas by the end of the weekend, although nothing like a revisitation of the frigid cold snap that dominated late December and the first half of January was expected.

Most of the losses, ranging from a couple of pennies to about a nickel, occurred at western points. The rest of the market was flat to about a dime higher.

The report of a 245 Bcf pull from storage during the week ending Jan. 15 by the Energy Information Administration handily exceeded consensus expectations centered around the low 220s Bcf. Because it more than doubled the five-year average pull of 118 Bcf, Nymex traders pushed February futures 11.9 cents higher on the day (see related story), lending some support to the weekend cash market.

Snowfall will be measured in feet through Friday in the Four Corners area as a major winter storm attacks most forcefully northward across Utah and eastward across Colorado and the mountains of northern and western New Mexico, according to The Weather Channel (TWC). Lows will continue to hit the teens and 20s Friday in the Rockies and much of Canada, while the rest of the West will remain merely chilly.

Temperatures were already starting to ease lower in the eastern South with west-end locations due to follow by Sunday, but going into the weekend the region will remain fairly moderate for the most part.

The western storm is due to sweep eastward, and although it will take until Sunday to reach the bulk of the Midwest, temperatures will be returning to average for late January following a few days of above-normal readings, TWC said. Although some snow and other frozen precipitation will touch parts of the Northeast Friday, most of the new surge of cold air is not expected hit the region until Sunday and Monday.

It’s “relatively mild now” with daytime temperatures hovering a little above freezing, a Midwest utility buyer said Thursday afternoon. But the local forecast calls for colder conditions again Sunday and temperatures are due to stay below freezing all next week, he added.

There’s been a lot of fog in the area in the last couple of days as the snow starts to melt, the buyer continued. Just in case, he went ahead and traded for Friday flows Wednesday, he said, because he was afraid he and other staffers might have trouble getting to their offices Thursday because of the fog and leftover snow.

The National Weather Service expects below-normal temperatures during the Jan. 26-30 period in peninsular Florida and north of an arc in the north-central U.S. running southeastward from central Montana into northeastern Kansas and central Missouri before curving back to the northeast into western Michigan. Its six- to 10-day forecast calls for above-normal readings in the northeast except for western New York and most of Pennsylvania, and along the West Coast in western Washington state and Oregon into northwestern California.

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