Was the forecast right for Chicago on Sat Aug 15?
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 Sat Aug 15 high anywhere from 25° to 28°;by the final call, the day before, the field had settled to a median of 26°. The day verified at 29° against the ECMWF IFS analysis, with 16.3 mm of precipitation — thunderstorms.
UKMO landed closest, off by 0.2°. AIGFS ran 5° cool.
What every model said, at every lead
Daily-high calls for Sat Aug 15 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 · 2026-07-31 | — | 23° | — | — | 28° | — | — | 23–28° |
| 14d · 2026-08-01 | 27° | 27° | 28° | — | 25° | — | — | 25–28° |
| 13d · 2026-08-02 | 28° | 26° | 26° | — | 22° | — | — | 22–28° |
| 12d · 2026-08-03 | 24° | 20° | 24° | — | 29° | — | — | 20–29° |
| 11d · 2026-08-04 | 24° | 20° | 23° | — | 22° | — | — | 20–24° |
| 10d · 2026-08-05 | 25° | 23° | 22° | — | 24° | — | — | 22–25° |
| 9d · 2026-08-06 | 21° | 21° | 24° | 21° | 26° | — | — | 21–26° |
| 8d · 2026-08-07 | 24° | 22° | 26° | 24° | 28° | — | — | 22–28° |
| 7d · 2026-08-08 | 24° | 21° | 28° | 23° | 24° | — | — | 21–28° |
| 6d · 2026-08-09 | 24° | 21° | 29° | 23° | 29° | 32° | 33° | 21–33° |
| 5d · 2026-08-10 | 23° | 25° | 28° | 25° | 28° | 34° | 35° | 23–35° |
| 4d · 2026-08-11 | 27° | 26° | 27° | 26° | 32° | 31° | 23° | 23–32° |
| 3d · 2026-08-12 | 25° | 26° | 28° | 24° | 31° | 31° | 36° | 24–36° |
| 2d · 2026-08-13 | 25° | 25° | 25° | 25° | 27° | 27° | 26° | 25–27° |
| 1d · 2026-08-14 | 25° | 24° | 27° | 26° | 26° | 27° | 29° | 24–29° |
| actual | 29° |
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.