Higher cooling demand expectations in the latest weather model runs, combined with a large drop in daily Lower 48 production estimates, had natural gas futures advancing in early trading Tuesday. The July Nymex contract was up 6.8 cents to $3.259/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

After dropping several cooling degree days (CDD) from the outlook in Monday’s session, the weather data as of early Tuesday had gained back several CDD, according to NatGasWeather.

This leaves the outlook “hot enough” to drive bullish sentiment “for the entire six- to 15-day period and could be the reason if prices were to rally today, especially with the potential for seasonal buyers to step in ahead of core summer heat,” NatGasWeather said. “The pattern could certainly be hotter, but it should...