From the Director's Desk:
Out West, Winter Does a Curtain Call
As I type this Interstate 94 is closed between Bismarck, North Dakota and Billings, Montana. I traveled that same stretch just three weeks ago and the only indication of winter was the ice on the handful of bigger sloughs we passed. There was no snow for thousands of square miles, just soggy dormant grasses in the ditches and medians. Early this week a massive storm system battered the northern Rockies dropping snow and thermostats across the region. The “Feels Like” Temperature map below was captured just after lunch on Wednesday afternoon.
Producers in the east can only look on longingly at this last burst of Heating Degree Days. While no one would argue that the heating season of 2021-22 was the kind of year that excites wood pellet producers, the Pacific Northwest at least had a winter that exceeded the season before (2020-21). The Pellet Fuels Index shows Lewiston, Montana lagging last year’s HDD totals by 3%. Let’s keep an eye on Lewiston next week. Last year during this week Lewiston was topping out in the upper 30s. This week it's been highs in the upper teens with evening lows in the single digits. In east-central Montana at least, pellet stoves are still running full-bore.
Map credit: wunderground.com
I will be interested to see if this late season storm out West is appreciable in any of the data sets I keep close tabs on. The EIA data shows clearly that April is the month where the sector winds down and catches its breath. Since 2016, the month of April sees the lowest average production and sales. Nationwide wood pellet manufacturers average 112,396 tons of production and just 100,517 tons in sales. By comparison, the average sales figure in October is 248,148 tons against production of an average of 164,066 tons.
