Was the forecast right for Chicago on Sat Sep 26?
Chicago, Illinois · daily high temperature in °F · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against the MDW observations
14 days out, 4 models put Chicago's Sat Sep 26 high anywhere from 67° to 83°;by the final call, the day before, the field had settled to a median of 69°. The day verified at 68° against the MDW observations — cloudy.
AIFS landed closest, off by 0.4°. GFS ran 5° warm.
What every model said, at every lead
Daily-high calls for Sat Sep 26 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 · 2026-09-11 | — | 68° | — | — | 76° | — | — | 68–76° |
| 14d · 2026-09-12 | 75° | 67° | 72° | — | 83° | — | — | 67–83° |
| 13d · 2026-09-13 | 71° | 81° | 73° | — | 76° | — | — | 71–81° |
| 12d · 2026-09-14 | 67° | 80° | 75° | — | 76° | — | — | 67–80° |
| 11d · 2026-09-15 | 71° | 80° | 72° | — | 72° | — | — | 71–80° |
| 10d · 2026-09-16 | 65° | 74° | 66° | — | 68° | — | — | 65–74° |
| 9d · 2026-09-17 | 70° | 75° | 65° | 75° | 72° | — | — | 65–75° |
| 8d · 2026-09-18 | 70° | 69° | 64° | 70° | 76° | — | — | 64–76° |
| 7d · 2026-09-19 | 70° | 71° | 68° | 70° | 70° | — | — | 68–71° |
| 6d · 2026-09-20 | 68° | 71° | 64° | 65° | 64° | 69° | 66° | 64–71° |
| 5d · 2026-09-21 | 69° | 72° | 65° | 67° | 66° | 70° | 68° | 65–72° |
| 4d · 2026-09-22 | 68° | 73° | 66° | 67° | 73° | 68° | 68° | 66–73° |
| 3d · 2026-09-23 | 68° | 72° | 66° | 65° | 73° | 69° | 67° | 65–73° |
| 2d · 2026-09-24 | 69° | 70° | 68° | 67° | 75° | 70° | 67° | 67–75° |
| 1d · 2026-09-25 | 68° | 70° | 66° | 71° | 73° | 69° | 67° | 66–73° |
| actual | 68° |
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. 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.