U.S. cold forecast to stretch through December

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U.S. cold forecast to stretch through December December 13, 2000

NEW YORK (Reuters) via NewsEdge Corporation -

A cold snap that has already paralyzed U.S. Midwest and bitten further into the nation's depleted heating oil stocks shows no sign of letting up for the rest of the month, meteorologists said Wednesday.

Winter storms have marched through much of the eastern two thirds of the United States this week and the Weather Services Corporation warn that temperatures are likely to remain below normal for at least two more weeks.

``The bottom line is that the flow of Arctic air surging into the lower 48 (states) will continue this week and next week,'' said Jon Davis of Salomon Smith Barney in a report.

``The 'Arctic Pinch' pattern...shows all signs of continuing through the end of December,'' he said.

Over the next week ``the coldest air will be in the Central States but there will be pushes of the cold eastward as well,'' WSC said. The low pressure trough will dominate until December 26, WSC added.

The cold weather sweeping across the eastern two thirds of the country helped pull home heating fuel inventories down by 5.4 percent last week.

Nationwide distillate stocks fell 4.5 million barrels in the week ended December 8 according to the American Petroleum Institute (API), including a 2.7 million barrel draw on heating oil alone which left nationwide inventories some 27 percent below last year.

In the key heating oil market of the northeast U.S., temperatures will stay below normal for almost all of the next ten days, WSC added.

Temperatures will be 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit below normal Wednesday, 2-4 degrees below normal Thursday, 4-8 below normal Friday, rise to near normal Saturday-Sunday and then fall back again, it said.

Northeast heating oil inventories are still nearly 40 percent below this time last year, after falling another 1.6 million barrels last week.

^ REUTERS@

http://www.individual.com/story.shtml?story=d1213132.801

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), December 13, 2000


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