Record-breaking temperatures and a precipitous drop in wind generation fueled impressive gains for natural gas prices across the Lower 48 during the June 6-10 trading week. NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. picked up 36.5 cents to reach $8.510/MMBtu.

Futures, however, finished lower on the week as traders struggled with how an outage at the Freeport liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility following an explosion may impact supply/demand balances. The July Nymex gas futures contract ultimately closed the week at $8.850, off 47.2 cents from Monday’s close.

Despite the Freeport incident snagging most of the headlines in the latter part of the week, Mother Nature’s scorching temperatures were pretty notable as well. The National Weather Service said sweltering heat will rule...