The end of second week of November through the first half of the third should feature near normal temperatures over most of the lower 48; a little cooler than normal over the desert SW and above average over the NE. Basically a channel is opening up from north-western Canada toward the great basin that will support continued cool high pressure over much of the west. However, one consequence will be milder than normal conditions along the immediate Pacific coast as inland high pressure creates frequent "Santa Ana " wind events from the BC border south to San Diego. Another consequence of this pattern is a fairly wet period east of the Rockies as a storm track set s up from Colorado to the Great Lakes.

This election week features the development of a strong "nor-easter" storm on the east coast that is targeting the areas affected by Sandy with its strongest wind and heaviest precipitation. As the infrastructure in these areas have already been weakened by Sandy's wrath, and beachfront natural protection like dunes and berms have been flattened, this storm will compound the misery of those along the shore from NJ north to Maine due to additional coastal flooding (although much less than was delivered by Sandy) , and create more problems for power utilities for much of the NE; not only because of strong wind, but also because this system is likely to bring heavy wet snow to the Appalachians from Virginia to Northern New York State, and flooding rains to smaller rivers and creeks. Conditions will improve by the end of the week and into the weekend as high pressure rebuilds over the east coast.

Toward the end of the week ((Thursday night/Friday) a blizzard develops over the northern Rockies. A very strong cold front will plow through Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico resulting in near blizzard conditions spreading to Wyoming and Colorado east of the Rockies on the weekend and associated strong and gusty winds developing over much of southern California, Southern Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.

NJ injections to be reported this week will be a bit difficult to determine. Power demand along the eastern seaboard north of N Carolina was greatly reduced by Sandy, although the much less affected SE (and Texas) were quite a bit cooler than normal creating increased demand for heating there. The unaffected parts of the midwest and Ohio Valley were similarly cooler than normal. Between Sandy's demand destruction and increased space heating requirements over the less or unaffected parts of the east, if I had to guess, I would have to say that injections reported Thursday will be near the 5 year average; around 35 Bcf. Incidentally, this is the time of year that net draw-downs begin.