* Injection estimates ranged from 50 bcf to 89 bcf
* Median build in the Reuters poll was 78 bcf
NEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas inventories were expected to have gained 76 billion cubic feet last week, a Reuters poll of industry traders and analysts showed on Wednesday.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release gas storage data for the week ended July 8 on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT).
There were 26 participants in the Reuters poll, with injection estimates ranging from 50 bcf to 89 bcf.
Storage rose an adjusted 78 bcf for the same week last year. The five-year average build for that week is 88 bcf.
The median build in the survey was 78 bcf.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said there were 87 cooling degree days last week, 19 warmer than the previous week, 18 warmer than normal and two warmer than the same week last year.
Degree days, a measure of departure in the mean daily temperature from 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 Celsius), are used to reflect demand to heat or cool homes and businesses.
In last week's report, for the week ended July 1, overall storage climbed 95 bcf to 2,527 trillion cubic feet, well above the Reuters estimate of 80 bcf, the year-ago rise of 76 bcf and the five-year average gain for that week of 80 bcf.
(Storage graphic: https://link.reuters.com/hut82k)
The build trimmed the inventory shortfall relative to last year by 19 bcf to 224 bcf, or 8 percent, and left stocks 48 bcf, or 2 percent, below the five-year average.
It was the third straight week that the inventory gap to year-ago narrowed.
Eastern storage climbed 62 bcf in the last report and edged up to about 11 percent below last year's levels.
Consuming Region West storage, which gained 16 bcf for the week, narrowed to 23 percent below the same year-ago week.
Inventories in the Producing Region rose 17 bcf but held at about 3 percent above the same week in 2010.
A total build Thursday at the Reuters survey estimate would widen the shortfall relative to last year by 2 bcf to 226 bcf, or 8 percent, and increase the deficit to the five-year average by 12 bcf to 60 bcf, or 2.3 percent.
In the past four reports, total stocks rose 340 bcf, or 85 bcf per week, versus a 309 bcf adjusted build for the same one-month period last year and a 330-bcf five-year average gain for that period.
NOAA said it expected 90 cooling degree days this week, 17 warmer than normal but about even with the same year-ago week.
Early injection estimates for next week's EIA report range from 45 bcf to 65 bcf versus a year-ago build of 55 bcf and a five-year average increase for that week of 67 bcf.
Storage ended March with 1.585 tcf in the ground, or about 1 percent below the five-year average, after a cold winter trimmed stocks from an all-time high of 3.84 tcf in early November.
If weekly stock builds through October match the five-year average pace, inventories will begin next heating season with 3.555 tcf, about 7.4 percent below last November's record and 1.3 percent below average for that time of year.
To get inventories above last year's record high by Nov. 1, weekly injections must average 73 bcf for the remaining 18 weeks of the stock building season, well above the five-year average of 57 bcf for that period.