Active Weather Kept Warm Temperatures In Check For Weekly Storage Report
Weather during the period April 5th-11th was very active with Spring storms tracking across much of the central and eastern US throughout. This led to warm surges, cool, blasts, and areas of showers, thunderstorms, and even accumulating snowfall for portions of the Midwest and Northeast. A fairly impressive cool blast pushed deep into the southern Plains, including Teas and much of the south during the middle of the week/draw period. This led to several days of below normal temperatures and higher than normal nat gas demand for many regions, including the highest use states across the Ohio Valley and Northeast. However, the west was quite warm and the above normal temperatures expanded well into the northern Plains, as many areas saw temperatures warm into the 70s and 80s. With so many active storms rolling across the country, there was never ample opportunity for warm conditions to set up over the high population regions of the central and eastern US, even though at times they were quite mild. This kept nat gas injections for the week in check and will only bring a modest increase of between +35 to 43 Bcf, which is slightly higher than the past 5 year average of 26 Bcf for this week, but not significantly so. This weeks number will fail to impress when considering storage reserves remain nearly 1.0 Tcf below the 5 year average and supplies will not make up much ground with this or next weeks EIA data. There is better potential for heftier injections in May as the pattern could finally make a significant shift to warmer and drier.
A spring storm was tracking out of the central US and hammering the eastern US to start the draw period. this led to powerful thunderstorms along the cold front and heavy rain and snow over the Midwest.
During the middle of the draw period a Spring storm was tracking across the eastern US with a blast of chilly air pushing deep into the southern US. The image was from Tuesday Morning. This brought a quick end to the brief warm up over the East
At the end of the draw period, a weak cool front moved through the northern US with light showers and slightly colder than normal temperatures. The southern US, Plains, and West was warming as high pressure built in.
Average temperatures over the draw week were cooler than normal for the Northeast and South and Southeast, but only marginally so. Temperatures were above normal for the west and portions of the Plains.
