Pedestrians in Times Square in the snow during a winter storm on Sunday, February 22, 2026 in New York, USA.
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U.S. natural gas prices rose more than 3% on Monday as a major winter storm hit the northeastern part of the country, affecting 35 million people and leaving hundreds of thousands without power.
As cities and towns on the U.S. East Coast brace for major late-winter storms, forecasters are warning of 1 to 2 feet of snow in many areas, maximum wind speeds of 110 miles per hour and coastal flooding.
natural gas futures As of 12:43 p.m. London time (7:43 a.m. ET), the price for March delivery was trading 3.2% higher at $3.14 per million British thermal units, lagging earlier gains.
The National Weather Service (NWS) announced that it has issued a blizzard warning for 35 million U.S. residents from Sunday through Monday.
New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani declared a local state of emergency on Sunday, ordering a city-wide ban to all non-emergency vehicles from 9pm local time on Sunday to noon on Monday.
Mamdani said public schools will also have a “snow day” on Monday. “No online school, no distance learning, just a completely classic snow day,” Mamdani said in a social media post about X.
Natural gas prices over the past three months.
The outages are estimated to have affected hundreds of thousands of people in northeastern states, including more than 100,000 in New Jersey alone, according to data from PowerOutage.us, which collects real-time outage data from power companies across the country.
Tens of thousands of people were also affected in states such as Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The airline also canceled thousands of flights by Monday night and waived cancellation and change fees at airports stretching from Virginia to Maine.
