Investing.com - U.S. natural gas futures rallied to the highest level in almost three weeks on Wednesday, as sentiment remained upbeat amid bullish weather forecasts.
U.S. natural gas for August delivery was at $3.095 per million British thermal units by 9:40AM ET (1340GMT), up 0.7 cents, or around 0.2%, after touching its highest since June 29 at $3.103 earlier in the session.
Prices notched their third-straight session of gains on Tuesday as updated weather forecasting models pointed to increased summer demand in the coming weeks.
Hot high pressure over the western, central, and southern U.S. will strengthen and expand as the week progresses, eventually dominating almost the entire country besides the far northern U.S. with highs of upper 80s to 100s for strong national demand.
Longer-term models showed the western, central and southern U.S. will be hot with highs of upper 80s to 100s through August 1, due to strong high pressure.
Natural gas prices have closely tracked weather forecasts in recent weeks, as traders try to gauge the impact of shifting outlooks on summer cooling demand.
Nearly 50% of all U.S. households use gas for cooling.
Market participants looked ahead to weekly storage data due on Thursday, which is expected to show a build in a range between 27 and 38 billion cubic feet in the week ended July 14.
That compares with a gain of 57 billion cubic feet in the preceding week, an increase of 34 billion a year earlier and a five-year average rise of 59 billion cubic feet.
Total natural gas in storage currently stands at 2.945 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 8.9% lower than levels at this time a year ago but 5.9% above the five-year average for this time of year.