Was the forecast right for Chicago on Thu Oct 15?
Chicago, Illinois · daily high temperature in °C · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against the MDW observations
14 days out, 4 models put Chicago's Thu Oct 15 high anywhere from 16° to 25°;by the final call, the day before, the field had settled to a median of 19°. The day verified at 19° against the MDW observations, with 10.7 mm of precipitation — showers.
ICON landed closest, off by 0.1°. GFS ran 2° cool.
What every model said, at every lead
Daily-high calls for Thu Oct 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 · 2026-09-30 | — | 12° | — | — | 16° | — | — | 12–16° |
| 14d · 2026-10-01 | 17° | 18° | 16° | — | 25° | — | — | 16–25° |
| 13d · 2026-10-02 | 11° | 15° | 24° | — | 21° | — | — | 11–24° |
| 12d · 2026-10-03 | 22° | 18° | 17° | — | 21° | — | — | 17–22° |
| 11d · 2026-10-04 | 23° | 11° | 20° | — | 10° | — | — | 10–23° |
| 10d · 2026-10-05 | 18° | 19° | 25° | — | 21° | — | — | 18–25° |
| 9d · 2026-10-06 | 15° | 16° | 24° | — | 18° | — | — | 15–24° |
| 8d · 2026-10-07 | 13° | 19° | 12° | 15° | 31° | — | — | 12–31° |
| 7d · 2026-10-08 | 17° | 28° | 23° | 15° | 27° | — | — | 15–28° |
| 6d · 2026-10-09 | 15° | 23° | 16° | 22° | 18° | 16° | 15° | 15–23° |
| 5d · 2026-10-10 | 15° | 17° | 15° | 21° | 19° | 22° | 15° | 15–22° |
| 4d · 2026-10-11 | 15° | 16° | 16° | 18° | 17° | 18° | 16° | 15–18° |
| 3d · 2026-10-12 | — | 16° | 16° | 18° | 16° | 18° | 16° | 16–18° |
| 2d · 2026-10-13 | 17° | 16° | 18° | 21° | 16° | 18° | 16° | 16–21° |
| 1d · 2026-10-14 | 19° | 18° | 20° | 21° | 17° | 19° | 17° | 17–21° |
| actual | 19° |
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.