Weekly natural gas cash prices lost ground for the first time this year with the brunt of the season’s worst winter storm passed and set to give way to warmer temperatures.

NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. for the holiday-shortened Jan. 16-19 period fell $1.520 to $4.545/MMBtu.

Prices in most regions declined in the trading week from the previous week’s price spikes to some of the highest levels of the winter. However, many hubs in the East gained in the week, driven higher from the double shot of Arctic cold in the week that boosted heating demand.

The Northeast Regional Avg. gained $6.805 week/week to average $12.770. Iroquois Zone 2 soared $10.655 to $16.300 to lead gainers and rank among the highest on price.

Declines were fairly uniform across most other...