As milder temperatures continued to blanket Lower 48 forecast maps over the weekend, suggesting weak weather-driven demand could persist well into December, natural gas futures were trading sharply lower early Monday.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

After carving out a low of $2.688/MMBtu earlier in the morning, the January Nymex contract was off 9.6 cents to $2.718 at around 8:40 a.m. ET.

Forecasts over the weekend offered little to counter prevailing bearish weather sentiment for the first half of December, according to NatGasWeather.

“Going into the weekend, we thought the weather data was likely a little too warm for the first two weeks of December and could add a little demand in time,” NatGasWeather said. “Not quite.”

Models ultimately saw no change in terms of overall heating degree day...