Arctic air is amassing in northern Canada and will surge into the central United States late this week and the weekend. It has the potential to be the coldest weather so far this winter in many areas and may surpass the cold experienced in December. It is likely to expand as far south as Texas and into the East.
The bitterly cold air will be accompanied by extremely low AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures, which tells how it feels outside when taking into account the effect of the wind, temperature, humidity, precipitation and sunshine. RealFeel® Temperatures will dip 10-30 degrees below the actual temperature at times.
Energy Information Administration:
Over the last four winters, winter storms Uri (February 2021), Elliott (December 2022), and most recently, Heather (January 2024) interrupted weekly U.S. natural gas production by more than 15 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), according to daily estimates from S&P Global Commodity Insights. These declines were the largest interruptions to U.S. natural gas production during the past four years. Although the impacts of these disruptions appear more muted over the course of a month, winter storms Uri and Elliott still drove declines in monthly average natural gas production of 3 Bcf/d to 7 Bcf/d.
Interruptions to natural gas production can occur at any time of the year in the United States and often vary in scale and impact. These interruptions can be caused by different factors, including inclement weather, maintenance events, or temporary oversupply conditions that cause a producer to reduce the volume of natural gas moving through a pipeline system. Severe weather that affects one or more of the major U.S. natural gas-producing regions, such as the Appalachia, Permian, and Haynesville regions, can cause noticeable levels of interruption on a national scale. These three regions combined accounted for 66% of U.S. natural gas production in 2023 and had accounted for 60% in 2022.
Natural-gas prices are having one of their biggest one-day gains in years, with February futures trading more than 20% higher Tuesday morning due to the blast of cold over the long weekend and forecasts for even chillier weather ahead.
Prices surged back toward $4 per million British thermal units for February gas and above $3 for March deliveries.
Still, prices remain below where they began heating season. Prices rose sharply after some parts of the country were blanketed with snow in November but tumbled as warmer-than-normal temperatures settled in last month.
As a kid I wondered what the difference was between sleet and freezing rain. Freezing rain (“ice storm”) is far, far worse than pelleted ice hitting the ground. Let’s hope the GPS (sleet) forecast wins over the ECMWF (freezing rain) forecast in this case.