The price of natural gas delivered to New York City climbed to an all-time high on Tuesday as a winter snow storm brought freezing temperatures to the Northeast.

Natural gas for Wednesday delivery soared to $125 a million British thermal units at Transco Zone 6, a pipeline delivery point in New Jersey where New York City gas prices are set, according to Intercontinental Exchange Group Inc. The price spiked to $100/mmBtu shortly after 9:30 a.m. EST before rising further as traders braced for more unusually cold weather.

The sharp rise, which beats a previous record of $90/mmBtu on Jan. 6, comes as MDA Weather Services, a Gaithersburg, Md., forecaster, projected a "second round of intense cold" in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. over the next six to 10 days.

The chill follows frigid temperatures earlier this month, which forced many Americans to turn up their thermostats to burn a higher-than-normal amount of the fuel in furnaces to heat their homes. Nearly half of all households rely on natural gas as their primary heating source, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The cold snap is also pushing natural-gas futures higher, as market participants worry about tightening supplies. During the last Arctic blast, many energy companies struggled with frozen equipment and had difficulty getting the fuel to generators.

Natural gas for February delivery, reflecting prices nationwide, rose 9.7 cents, or 2.2%, to $4.422/mmBtu on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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