It wasn’t in the forecasts or on the weather map, so where was that monster blizzard hiding? Doubtless many traders were scratching their heads over that question Tuesday as nearly all points recorded major gains despite the lack of severe cold or severe heat in almost every region.

A few scattered locations were down about a dime to 30 cents or so. Otherwise triple-digit gains were common, especially in the West and Midcontinent, as a large majority of points saw increases ranging from a couple of pennies to about $2.80.

The cash market could claim only modest support from the 5.5-cent gain by December futures a day earlier, but it would have considerably more positive guidance Wednesday after the natural gas contract soared 38.1 cents amid big run-ups throughout Nymex’s energy futures complex (see related story).

Only a day after registering an all-time low quote for the Midcontinent of 2.5 cents, CenterPoint-East had Tuesday’s biggest price increase, followed by CenterPoint-West. Tuesday’s low-end quotes for the two CenterPoint pools were about $2.65 and $2.25, respectively.

The Rockies had some justification for their big upticks with Wednesday lows forecast to be in the 30s and 20s. But Western Canada, where Calgary is seeing mid-20s lows, had only modest gains between C10 and C15 cents.

Florida Gas Transmission’s warning of a potential Overage Alert Day because of low linepack helped to explain into-pipe and citygate price increases. But gains in the rest of the Gulf Coast and at Northeast and Midwest citygates were a bit more mysterious. The South is experiencing relatively little late-fall heat, with most locations peaking around 80 or less. Conditions currently are also relatively moderate in the northern market areas, with only a few sections getting below the 50s.

“I don’t know why,” confessed a Gulf Coast producer when asked about Tuesday’s seemingly inordinate price strength. He and colleagues “have been puzzling about it,” he added.

Maybe it was related to election day, the producer suggested, saying traders might think that if Barack Obama wins the presidency, gas demand will rise because he has promised to try to reduce coal-fired power generation. But of course that begs the question of assuming an Obama victory, he won’t take office for more than two months, so why would that affect the gas market now, he said.

The producer also noted that there is a widespread cold front forecast for the weekend, so maybe buyers were looking ahead and stocking up in advance. He definitely expects gas demand to be growing significantly later this week.

But meanwhile Chicago-area utilities either were not buying gas for Wednesday or even selling gas in some instances, he said. His company made more sales Monday, when prices weren’t as strong, than on Tuesday, he added.

Stephen Smith of Stephen Smith Energy Associates is projecting a rather minuscule storage build of 12 Bcf for the week ending Oct. 31. Tim Evans of Citi Futures Perspective is looking for a much more robust addition of 35 Bcf, and also looks ahead to injections of 80 Bcf and 15 Bcf for the weeks ending Nov. 7 and Nov. 14.

©Copyright 2008Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.