Cold Weather in Northeast Sends Natural Gas Price Soaring

At the Henry Hub pricing point in Louisiana, natural gas for February delivery was down slightly today at $4.30 per million BTUs.

Cold weather is expected to continue over much of the U.S. for the next several days, with wind chills into the -40 degree range in areas around the Great Lakes. Washington, D.C., is expecting a high of 20 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, while New York can look forward to a high of 14 degrees.

The spike in natural gas prices will hit consumers with hefty bills which likely will put a damper on their discretionary spending for the next month or so — or longer if the bitter weather returns. The impact of the cold weather on the recovering U.S. economy is more than negligible, even though it is pretty tough to quantify.