Washington (Platts)--28Jan2013/1238 pm EST/1738 GMT

The NYMEX February natural gas futures contract fell in early Monday trading under pressure from a short-term warming trend in the forecasts, sources said.

As of 10:06 a.m. EST (1506 GMT), the contract was trading at $3.306/MMBtu, down 13.8 cents.

"It's going to be 50 in the Chicago area," said Price Futures Group analyst Phil Flynn. "We're going to see a substantial warmup, but then we're going to get back cold again."

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Kilduff Report analyst Mike Fitzpatrick noted, however, that the anticipated cold further out in the forecasts "will be "nothing like the recent spate."

Moreover, "we are getting ready for March to become the front-month contract," Fitzpatrick said. "The upcoming forecast ... nowithstanding, the winter looks to be ending for our purposes real soon."

The contract has traded so far between $3.295/MMBtu and $3.396/MMBtu.

--Jessica Marron, jessica_marron@platts.com
--Edited by Jeff Barber, jeff_barber@platts.com

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