After taking dives a day earlier, Northeast citygates rebounded by fairly substantive amounts Wednesday as blizzard conditions continued to rage from the Mid-Atlantic though southern New England. However, nearly all of the rest of the cash market was flat to nearly 15 cents lower as the wintry weather penetrating a great deal of North America failed to have much impact on most prices.

The Florida citygate (where an Overage Alert Day by Florida Gas Transmission was still in effect Wednesday) and Transco Zone 5 (Mid-Atlantic) joined the Northeast in recording gains of about 20 cents to half a dollar. Virtually all of the losses elsewhere were in single digits.

A second straight day of March futures losses slightly exceeding 11 cents Tuesday undoubtedly had something to do with most cash points failing to acknowledge the heavy heating demand in many areas. The screen turned positive — but just barely — in eking out an increase of 0.2 cent Wednesday (see related story).

Despite Wednesday’s gains in the Northeast, The Weather Channel (TWC) said parts of the region could look forward to a bit of relief Thursday as an intense low-pressure system moves into the Atlantic. The Mid-Atlantic also can expect a modicum of respite as a forecasting said a blizzard warning in the region will be ending shortly after dawn Thursday.

However, the Associated Press said the National Weather Service (NWS) reported that the latest storm has put Baltimore and Washington, DC, “over the top for their snowiest season on record.”

Although TWC still predicts lows in the single digits and below zero Thursday in the upper Mississippi Valley and northern Plains, and readings in the teens and low 20s will be common in other sections of the Midwest, icy precipitation is due to ease off a bit in the region. The South is entering a slight warming trend, although lows around freezing or slightly less will still occur in the eastern two-thirds of the region. Little has changed in the western outlook: frigid conditions in the Rockies and Western Canada and merely chilly to cold otherwise.

“We don’t ever shut down here for snow like the federal government,” laughed a utility buyer in the Lower Midwest. Recent lows in single digits and the teens have been good for business “but not personally,” she said. The area is gradually starting to emerge from the deep freeze, she added, and can expect to get slightly above freezing going into the weekend before temperatures turn colder again Sunday.

The utility experienced an all-time record for gas sendout for the month of January, the buyer said. She noted that pipeline restrictions have been notably absent for such harsh winter conditions in much of the nation recently.

But a marketer in the Upper Midwest was still a ways off from having freezing temperatures end, and continues to buy spot gas each day for clients’ space heating needs. She reported having some “issues” with her customers’ utility bills for customers after bringing on some more locations to be served.

The National Weather Service (NWS) sees little if any relief from cold weather for the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. during the Feb. 15-19 period. In its six- to 10-day forecast posted Tuesday afternoon, only the northern half of Maine was excepted from the agency’s prediction of below-normal temperatures everywhere else east of a line running to the south-southeast from northwestern Minnesota to southeastern New Mexico. The greatest deviations below normal were expected from the lower end of the Northeast through the entire South as far west as the southeastern corner of Texas. NWS looked for above-normal readings everywhere west of a line from western Montana through eastern Arizona.

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