Weather Data Maintains Late December, Early January Cold as Natural Gas Futures Rise

Colder trends from the European weather model overnight helped lift natural gas futures in early trading Tuesday. The January Nymex contract was up 8.3 cents to $2.788/MMBtu at around 8:50 a.m. ET.

The American and European weather models maintained a wide difference in heating degree day (HDD) expectations in their overnight runs, with the American model maintaining a milder outlook while its European counterpart extended colder trends for the Dec. 29-Jan. 3 time frame, according to NatGasWeather.

“Our verification data shows” the European model “performing better over the past 30 days, suggesting” the American dataset “is too warm and needs to add demand,” the firm said. If the European model “loses a greater amount of demand, the natural gas markets could...