Was the forecast right for Chicago on Tue Aug 11?
Chicago, Illinois · daily high temperature in °C · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against the ECMWF IFS analysis
14 days out, 4 models put Chicago's Tue Aug 11 high anywhere from 22° to 36°;by the final call, the day before, the field had settled to a median of 25°. The day verified at 26° against the ECMWF IFS analysis, with 17.5 mm of precipitation — rain.
ECMWF landed closest, off by 0.1°. AIFS ran 2° cool.
What every model said, at every lead
Daily-high calls for Tue Aug 11 as each model's runs approached it — the last archived run per day. NBM and The Spread's own blend are consensus products and stay out of these ranges and rankings; the Chicago scoreboard shows them, labelled.
| Lead | AIFS | AIGFS | ECMWF | GEM | GFS | ICON | UKMO | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15d · 2026-07-27 | — | 28° | — | — | 35° | — | — | 28–35° |
| 14d · 2026-07-28 | 27° | 22° | 33° | — | 36° | — | — | 22–36° |
| 13d · 2026-07-29 | 23° | 24° | 25° | — | 32° | — | — | 23–32° |
| 12d · 2026-07-30 | 28° | 23° | 25° | — | 17° | — | — | 17–28° |
| 11d · 2026-07-31 | 27° | 24° | 28° | — | 25° | — | — | 24–28° |
| 10d · 2026-08-01 | 23° | 24° | 28° | — | 32° | — | — | 23–32° |
| 9d · 2026-08-02 | 26° | 25° | 36° | 22° | 25° | — | — | 22–36° |
| 8d · 2026-08-03 | 25° | 25° | 29° | 24° | 22° | — | — | 22–29° |
| 7d · 2026-08-04 | 24° | 26° | 28° | 25° | 23° | — | — | 23–28° |
| 6d · 2026-08-05 | 24° | 26° | 27° | 22° | 23° | 27° | 29° | 22–29° |
| 5d · 2026-08-06 | 23° | 26° | 27° | 24° | 23° | 25° | 31° | 23–31° |
| 4d · 2026-08-07 | 23° | 23° | 25° | 24° | 23° | 27° | 27° | 23–27° |
| 3d · 2026-08-08 | 23° | 22° | 27° | 24° | 29° | 30° | 25° | 22–30° |
| 2d · 2026-08-09 | 24° | 23° | 25° | 25° | 30° | 26° | 23° | 23–30° |
| 1d · 2026-08-10 | 25° | 25° | 26° | 25° | 25° | 26° | 26° | 25–26° |
| actual | 26° |
Read it honestly
This is one date, not a league table. A model can win a day it deserved to lose; rankings only mean something over a window. For that, see which model has been most accurate in Chicago — or every city The Spread scores.
Forecasts are what each model's archived runs said at the time, captured at The Spread's sweep times — never reconstructed after the fact. Truth is the ECMWF IFS analysis (temperature_2m_max). The actual values are the ones in hand when this receipt was settled, usually 2 days after the date; a correction published after that is not carried into it. Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.