’Tis the season! No, not that one—don’t toddle off to the mall just yet. It’s the pre-winter driving season, meaning refiners are boosting butane prices as they stock up for their winter gasoline blends.

Also spreading joy was propane, which vaulted to its highest price point in almost three years as the hypothetical NGL barrel closed in on highs for the year at both hubs in the past week.

In the past week, ethane came within one-tenth of a cent per gallon (gal) of its high for 2017 at Mont Belvieu, Texas, set four weeks ago. The butanes and C5+ had their strongest price showing since Super Bowl week, almost eight months ago.

And with the barrel price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil happily ensconced in the $50s and market fundamentals supporting a climb, expect this rising tide to lift NGL boats even higher. That’s because global oil inventories are dropping, En*Vantage Inc. points out, as are OPEC’s oil production and exports. Combine that with the International Energy Agency’s upward revision of global demand growth and Venezuela’s debt repayment deadline coming up in October.

Natural gas prices, which touched $3 per MMBtu at Chicago City Gate and the Houston Ship Channel at the start of the Hart Energy Frac Spread “week,” wavered and then slumped slightly as the days passed. A cooler October could help prices, but that might not be enough if there is not a rapid recovery from the recent hurricanes.

The weather forecast for the fourth quarter shows above-average temperatures for most of the Lower 48, especially in the Southwest. The National Weather Service believes chances are increasing for La Niña later in the quarter, which would create conditions for below-average temperatures from the Pacific Northwest to the Northern Great Plains.

Other natural gas factors include LNG exports. Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSE MKTS: LNG) recently marked a one-day record of 2.9 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas delivered to its Sabine Pass, La., terminal, and Dominion Energy Inc. (NYSE: D) is progressing through the commissioning stage of its Cove Point, Md., export terminal.

En*Vantage warns about the impact on Mexico’s infrastructure from the recent earthquakes and aftershocks. The analysts anticipate a slowdown in natural gas deliveries as a result.

The price of ethane climbed back above 27 cents/gal at Mont Belvieu for only the second time this year and only the third time since mid-2014 (the price hit 27.65 cents/gal in late December 2016). The price slipped below 19 cents/gal at Conway, Kan., but the margin narrowed since last week although it was still in the negative.

Propane, up 7.3% in the last week at Mont Belvieu and 6.3% at Conway, had not crossed 90 cents/gal since October 2014 at Mont Belvieu. Just shy of 90 cents/gal at Conway, the price was still the highest since November 2014.

Storage of natural gas in the Lower 48 increased by 58 Bcf in the week ended Sept. 22, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported, below the Bloomberg consensus of 68 Bcf and above the 2016 increase of 49 Bcf. It is also below the five-year average of 84 Bcf and resulted in a total of 3.466 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). The figure is 3.5% below the 3.593 Tcf figure at the same time in 2016 and 1.2% above the five-year average of 3.345 Tcf.

Joseph Markman can be reached at jmarkman@hartenergy.com and @JHMarkman.