Investing.com - U.S. natural gas futures were higher on Tuesday, rising for the first time in four sessions as traders monitored shifting weather forecasts to assess the outlook for early-spring demand and supply levels.
U.S. natural gas for May delivery tacked on 5.9 cents, or around 1.9%, to $3.187 per million British thermal units by 9:23AM ET (13:23GMT).
Prices of the heating fuel slumped 6.2 cents on Monday, its third losing session in a row.
A strong spring storm with heavy showers and thunderstorms will track across the southern and east-central U.S. and then across the Northeast in the first half of the coming week, according to forecasters at NatGasWeather.com.
However, there will be limited cold air associated with it and will result in slightly lighter than normal overall demand for the fuel, when considering much of the rest of the country will be mild to warm.
A colder storm will then track across the south-central and eastern U.S. later in the week, which should boost demand back above normal levels.
Natural gas prices have closely tracked weather forecasts in recent weeks, as traders try to gauge the impact of shifting forecasts on early-spring demand.
The heating season from November through March is the peak demand period for U.S. gas consumption.
Nearly 50% of all U.S. households use gas for heating.
Meanwhile, market participants looked ahead to weekly storage data due on Thursday, which is expected to show a build in a range between 7 and 17 billion cubic feet in the week ended March 31.
That compares with a withdrawal of 43 billion cubic feet in the preceding week, a gain of 12 billion a year earlier and a five-year average drop of 13 billion cubic feet.
Total natural gas in storage currently stands at 2.049 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 17.1% lower than levels at this time a year ago but 12.2% above the five-year average for this time of year.