The Spread

Was the forecast right for Chicago on Thu Sep 10?

Chicago, Illinois · daily high temperature in °C · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against the MDW observations

13 days out, 4 models put Chicago's Thu Sep 10 high anywhere from 26° to 31°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 26°. The day verified at 24° against the MDW observations — cloudy.

ECMWF landed closest, off by 0.1°. GEM ran 2° hot.

13 days out the models said 26–31; it hit 24. ECMWF led (off 0.1°C); GEM ran 2°C hot.
The shareable card for this receipt — what this page looks like pasted into a thread.

What every model said, at every lead

Daily-high calls for Thu Sep 10 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 AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-08-26 24° 21° 21–24°
14d · 2026-08-27 20° 24° 23° 20–24°
13d · 2026-08-28 26° 26° 31° 26° 26–31°
12d · 2026-08-29 30° 29° 28° 25° 25–30°
11d · 2026-08-30 26° 32° 20° 29° 20–32°
10d · 2026-08-31 29° 32° 24° 29° 24–32°
9d · 2026-09-01 31° 37° 35° 28° 28–37°
8d · 2026-09-02 28° 28° 27° 29° 27° 27–29°
7d · 2026-09-03 26° 30° 28° 33° 28° 26–33°
6d · 2026-09-04 24° 23° 27° 27° 24° 29° 23–29°
5d · 2026-09-05 24° 25° 27° 24° 27° 25° 24° 24–27°
4d · 2026-09-06 23° 24° 25° 23° 27° 24° 24° 23–27°
3d · 2026-09-07 24° 24° 26° 24° 26° 25° 26° 24–26°
2d · 2026-09-08 24° 23° 27° 25° 25° 26° 26° 23–27°
1d · 2026-09-09 24° 24° 25° 27° 27° 26° 27° 24–27°
0d · 2026-09-10 24° 23° 25° 26° 26° 26° 26° 23–26°
actual 24°

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 MDW observations. Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.