Natural gas prices climbed above $6 per million BTUs on Wednesday for the first time in 5 years. The price peaked at around $6.30 in intraday trading on Thursday but has fallen below $6 a couple of times today. Today’s price movements are a bit of a surprise given the outlook for the weather in the Midwest and the Northeast for the next several days.

Another blast of cold air is expected to drop temperatures to below zero readings in the upper Midwest and northern Plains and into the single digits for most of the Northeast. The cold is also expected to push into the southeastern U.S.That’s anywhere from 10 to 25 degrees colder than normal.

The continuing cold weather may last into the first week of March over a region of the country that is heavily populated and uses a lot of natural gas at any time. As we noted yesterday, there is a chance that U.S. natural gas stockpiles will fall below 1 trillion cubic feet by the end of March. Given the outlook for the next 15 days, that level could be reached even earlier.

The United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSEMKT: UNG) is up 1.3% in early afternoon trading on Friday at $27.14 in a 52-week range of $16.59 to $27.58. The price came with a few cents of the high earlier this morning.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.