A heavy winter snowstorm hits New York and other major cities in the United States. New York, United States, January 25, 2026.
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WE natural gas price surged above $6 for the first time since late 2022 on Monday as a massive winter storm swept across the country, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power and forcing mass flight cancellations.
Natural gas futures for February delivery traded up 16.7%, or 88 cents, at $6.16 per million British thermal units as of 10:54 a.m. London time (5:54 a.m. ET), hitting a new 52-week high.
This is the first time that this contract, up around 68% since the start of the year, has climbed above the $6 level since December 2022, when European demand the price of American liquefied natural gas soared following Full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia earlier in the year.
More than 822,000 customers were left without power following a massive winter storm Sunday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.uswhich collects real-time data on power outages from utilities across the country.
The big freeze, known as Winter Storm Fern, was expected to bring widespread heavy snowfall and “catastrophic ice accumulations“from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), affecting at least 180 million people in 37 states.
Wind chills as low as -50 degrees Fahrenheit (-45.56 degrees Celsius) will persist this week across the eastern two-thirds of the United States, according to the NWS. said in a social media post Sunday, with temperatures well below normal expected to continue into early February.
Extreme cold has been blamed for the deaths of seven people across the country, NBC News reportedciting local officials.
More than 12,500 flights were canceled in the United States on Sunday. FlightAware reportedand another 3,965 have been canceled so far Monday. Delta Airlineswhich had previously urged travelers to change their flight bookings, said On Sunday, it intended to operate on a reduced schedule because icy conditions disrupted operations.
An American Airlines plane at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) during a winter storm in the Queens borough of New York, United States, Sunday, January 25, 2026.
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The US Department of Energy on Monday issued two emergency orders to mitigate power outages in New England and Texas, seeking to maintain grid stability and minimize the risk of power outages.
“As Winter Storm Fern brings extreme cold and dangerous conditions across the country, maintaining affordable, reliable and safe power is non-negotiable,” U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement Monday.
Power outages are estimated to cost the United States approximately $44 billion annually. data DOE National Laboratories.
