The cold season for 2021-22 offered a lot of variety most of which was not friendly to the natural gas market. The cold season started with a very warm climate feature record warmth in December. However, the mid-winter when temperatures are coldest observed a reversal in the pattern featuring top-third cold in the high energy demand northeast quadrant of the U.S. February brought a “polar vortex” cold outbreak surging into Texas and pulsing across the East followed by another cold shot in early March.

Next week (Mar. 6-10) features a La Nina-style rainstorm across the Mid-South U.S. according to ECMWF. The event is reminiscent of a wetter La Nina climatology for the East-central/Mid-south U.S. largely due to the warmer oceans of the middle latitudes occurring with modern-day La Nina episodes.