A corn stove used for home heating. (Gazette file photo)

Warm weather through mid-December is getting the winter heating season off to a happy start, but can it match last year’s?

“We set the bar so low last year that any normal type of winter will look higher,” said Alliant Energy spokesman Ryan Stensland.

With prices locked in on about 70 percent of Alliant’s expected natural gas needs, Stensland doesn’t expect customers to see a rate increase. But heating bills would be higher with anything like a normal winter.

“We don’t anticipate pricing to change much over the winter for customers,” he said. “What would change is their usage.”

Continued warm weather may have contributed to a decrease in the number of Iowans signing up for help with their heating bills, said Jerry McKim, director Iowa Bureau of Energy Assistance.

“Our participation rate is quite a bit lower than last year,” McKim said. “I attribute that to a mild winter so far.”

How do you feel about the upcoming winter and heating bills? Are you concerned about being able to pay for heat, if the winter turns out to be as cold, or colder, than normal?