Winter's shorter shadow on natural gas demand

Early winter season cold air outbreaks in the central and eastern portions of the United States have a significant impact on the price of natural gas during the winter heating demand season. A key focus of the Chesapeake meteorology group is forecasting leading indicators of potential early season cold air outbreaks that can result in significant natural gas price volatility.

The focus of this talk is on the impact of a later start to the natural gas heating season, defined as the first week in which natural gas is withdrawn from storage for use in heating residential and commercial structures. The trend over time of a later start to the heating season is highlighted as a case study of climatology and the downstream business decision impacts of the Chesapeake executive team.