Great News for the Home Heating Season in Iowa and Wisconsin

If you're looking for some terrific news, you've come to the right place.

We all know last winter was rough. It wasn't necessarily a terrible winter as far as the weather was concerned, but it was when it came to our home heating bills. This year, we should see improvement, thanks to two different things.

First off, we have El Niño to thank for the likelihood that natural gas prices will remain low for the upcoming winter. Late in the summer, Reuters reported the U.S. Climate Prediction Center expected a strong El Niño from December through February, the most expensive home heating months in Iowa and Wisconsin.

Earlier today, the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) released a new El Niño advisory in which they said there's a 75 to 85 percent chance of a strong event from November through January. That is "generally associated with warmer-than-average winter temperature across the U.S.," according to Reuters.

Beyond that, the CPC says "El Niño is anticipated to continue through the Northern Hemisphere spring (with an 80% chance during March-May 2024)."

Morningstar reported yesterday that the Energy Information Administration said natural gas prices last year were $6.42. It's expecting them to be less than half that this year, at $2.61, and to be at $3.23 in 2024. You're not likely to see that drastic of a drop when your heating bill arrives, though. Still, you should be able to afford to leave the thermostat higher this winter.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration says they expect households that use natural gas for home heating to see a significant drop in cost compared to last winter. Obviously, that's only an estimate because you can never fully predict Mother Nature. However, the winter estimate of approximately $600 for the 46 percent of U.S. homes that use natural gas sounds a whole lot better than the average $760 that was spent last winter.

National cost estimates for all four types of main heat sources are below.