As forecasts advertised unseasonably mild temperatures across key heating demand markets into early March, bargain-priced natural gas futures conceded ground in early trading Tuesday.

NGI Morning Natural Gas Price & Markets Coverage

The March Nymex contract was down 2.0 cents to $1.589/MMBtu at around 8:30 a.m. ET. April was down 2.7 cents to $1.653.

Weather models diverged in recent runs in their expectations for early March, with the European model advertising significantly less cold pushing into the Lower 48 for this time frame, NatGasWeather said early Tuesday.

The European dataset “remains notably warmer most of the next 15 days” versus its American counterpart, showing a pattern that would feature “very little subfreezing air over the U.S. for very light national demand,” NatGasWeather said.

Based on recent...