Mild Winter?

A few days ago, Atrios posted this:

Natural Gas Prices Set Record, Pointing to Costly Winter
By JAD MOUAWAD

Natural gas prices set a new record today, presaging higher heating bills for a majority of Americans this winter as well as soaring costs for industrial manufacturers of such products as plastics and chemicals.

Since the beginning of the summer, the price of natural gas has doubled. But unlike crude oil or gasoline, whose recent gains have been widely felt by most Americans, the surge in natural gas prices, the most popular form of energy for home heating, has so far gone largely unnoticed.

That is about to change as colder weather sets in. A hot summer, which pushed up natural gas consumption by electricity companies and depleted winter stocks, is expected to give way to a cold winter, which will push up residential consumption. Meanwhile, the Gulf Coast, the nation's largest energy hub, has suffered devastating punches from two severe hurricanes.

Hopefully, that will be (slightly) ameliorated by this:

(CP) - Canadians in the East and West can look forward to unseasonably mild weather in the months ahead but most of Ontario and Quebec will likely have to deal with a normal Canadian diet of cold and snow, says Environment Canada.

So a normal winter for the largest chunk of Canada' people, but a milder winter for the west and east. Problem is, most of the natural gas is still being used by the centre.

I'm still not being dissuaded from my concerns. This winter is going to suck for a lot of people.