A futures swoon of about $1.21 over the previous two days, abetted by further erosion of cooling load in some areas, led to further declines in most of the cash market Wednesday.

Most points recorded losses ranging from a little less than a nickel to a little more than 60 cents. A majority of the drops throughout the market were in the range of 30-40 cents. The California market continued to see sizeable declines despite inland temperatures still being forecast in the mid to upper 100s for Thursday.

All of the flat to as much as a dollar higher numbers occurred in the Rockies/Pacific Northwest/Western Canada region. The Rockies will see high temperatures returning to the 90s Thursday, stimulating power generation load. Perhaps even more important was the easing of transport restrictions and excess supply issues.

Numbers for domestic supply into Northwest got a moderate boost from the end of constraints at the pipeline’s Meacham and Caldwell compressor stations (see Transportation Notes). But Westcoast Station 2 and Sumas benefited not only from the Northwest action but also from Westcoast lifting a high-linepack OFO (see Transportation Notes). The two points spiked by about C90 cents and a dollar, respectively.

The screen has more negative guidance for cash traders Thursday after August futures dropped another 36.2 cents Wednesday.

Hurricane Bertha continued to recede as a matter of concern for the gas market. It had restrengthened to a Category Two storm by Wednesday evening, but the National Hurricane Center’s projected tracking had Bertha turning well to the east of Bermuda as it proceeded into the North Atlantic.

Weather 2000 doesn’t want anyone to get complacent about Bertha’s lack of impact. “The average date that the ‘B’ storm forms in the Atlantic is July 28th, and the average date that the ‘C’ storm forms in [the] Atlantic is August 11th,” the consulting firm said in a Wednesday advisory. “So we’re only in the [first] inning of the hurricane season and already well ahead of [the historical] climatological pace.”

The temperature outlook for Thursday in the Midwest is a mixed bag, with some locations getting a little cooler and others a little warmer depending on their proximity to a warm front that The Weather Channel said will bring stormy conditions to the Upper Midwest. It’s all downhill for highs in the Northeast, though, where Wednesday’s peaks around 90 degrees will be retreating into the low to mid 80s Thursday.

Power generation load for air conditioning essentially will maintain the status quo in the South and Midcontinent, where Thursday’s highs are expected to continue ranging from the upper 80s to the mid 90s.

“We like the way the screen’s going,” said a marketer in the Upper Midwest. Local weather was “so nice” Wednesday afternoon with temperatures in the upper 70s and virtually no humidity, she said, but hotter conditions will be returning next week.

Barclays Capital Research analysts Michael Zenker and George Hopley expect the upcoming storage report to show an injection of 92 Bcf for the week ending July 4. “It will include the impact of the Independence Day holiday weekend, which we estimate to have reduced natural gas demand by approximately 7 Bcf for the reference week,” they said.

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