Natural gas futures for September delivery settled 5% higher at $2.794 per million British thermal units on Monday after climbing as much as 5.4% during the session. Higher temperatures typically increase electricity demand as households and businesses use more air conditioning, boosting consumption of natural gas by power generators. At the same time, natural gas deliveries to liquefied natural gas export terminals along the US Gulf Coast rose to their highest level in more than a month, suggesting some facilities are emerging from seasonal maintenance. Large speculative short positions can make natural gas particularly vulnerable to sharp rallies when market fundamentals change. Short-covering also contributed to a dramatic natural gas rally in January, when a severe winter storm disrupted production and simultaneously increased demand.