North American natural gas futures gained some ground on Thursday but overall, prices continued to languish.

After six straight sessions of losses, the New York Mercantile Exchange contract for April rose on Thursday by 8.3 cents/MMBtu day/day to settle at $1.741. 

There was little room for optimism, though, for natural gas bulls. AccuWeather said the U.S. winter was the warmest ever in records that date to 1893. More mild weather is on deck over the next five days including highs in the 60s and 70s for Washington, DC, Philadelphia and New York City.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday NGI’s Spot Gas National Avg. dropped 15.0 cents to $1.135, its second lowest level ever since the price series began in 2013. Henry Hub declined 27.5 cents to average $1.240, its lowest level since...