With a break due in some areas Wednesday from a plethora of winter storms, prices fell in double-digit amounts at all points Tuesday. But sources expect quotes to rally again Wednesday since a new and even more severe blast of winter is expected to commence Wednesday night or Thursday in most regions outside the southern tier of states.

Most points gave back less Tuesday than they had gained on Monday. Losses tended to range from about a dime (ANR Southwest) to nearly C50 cents (intra-Alberta).

Anyone checking out The Weather Channel’s web site Tuesday might have expected a monumental price spike because winter storm alerts were posted for nearly two-thirds of the Lower 48 states, with all areas well represented except for the South as far west as Texas and Oklahoma. In addition to Alaska, alerts were listed for Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

However, the lengthy list was somewhat misleading because the alerts were for currently active or expected storms, and many of them were due to be lifted sometime later Tuesday.

A marketer visiting producer clients in Oklahoma said the cold weather there helped justify Monday’s price increases, but high temperatures Wednesday were expected to be in the 60s. One producer told her overall prices had fallen Tuesday “because the forecasts for more cold had been pushed back a day or two.” She also suggested that some bearishness may have resulted from people thinking the storage pull to be reported Thursday morning “will come in very low since last week was [relatively] warm” through Friday in most areas outside the West.

The producer expected to see cash numbers strengthen Wednesday because of the severity of the approaching cold front, the marketer added.

A utility buyer in the Lower Midwest said conditions in his city were fairly moderate Tuesday for mid-January, but he could expect freezing rain and possibly snow starting Wednesday night. It will be getting colder as the week goes on, he went on, “and we’ll be into the deep freeze from Thursday on and won’t come out until around Monday.” Asked his prediction for Wednesday’s market, the buyer chuckled and said, “You would think prices would be going back up again, but since when does weather logic have anything to do with the gas market?”

The National Weather Service predicted below normal temperatures during the Jan. 17-21 workweek in the Northeast and eastern Midwest. It also looks for below normal readings in the southern half of Florida and in an oval area stretching from the eastern edge of Oregon through southern Idaho and eastern Nevada to the southeast corner of Utah. The forecast calls for above normal conditions in the southern two-thirds of California along with the western edge of Nevada and most of Arizona, and in a sparsely populated band encompassing Montana and running southward through the Rocky Mountains and western Plains to the Texas Panhandle.

Citigroup analyst Kyle Cooper set his final estimation for Thursday storage report as a withdrawal of 89-99 Bcf.

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