Still hours away from landfall, Hurricane Delta made waves in the natural gas market Thursday, cutting into liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand that’s been sorely needed to prevent storage from toppling.

EIA storage oct 2

However, supply also was heavily curtailed ahead of the storm, and long-range weather models trended colder. That helped nudge the November Nymex gas futures contract to $2.627, up 2.1 cents from Wednesday’s close. December was unchanged at $3.149.

Spot gas prices were sharply lower amid lackluster near-term weather demand across most of the country. NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. tumbled 37.5 cents to $1.285.

Despite clearly bearish sentiment in the cash market, November futures were relatively strong compared to other winter month contracts, which climbed less than 2.0...