Was the forecast right for Chicago on Wed Oct 21?
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 Wed Oct 21 high anywhere from 12° to 20°;by the final call, the day before, the field had settled to a median of 21°. The day verified at 22° against the MDW observations — clear.
GFS landed closest, off by 0.1°. UKMO ran 2° cool.
What every model said, at every lead
Daily-high calls for Wed Oct 21 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 · 2026-10-06 | — | 13° | — | — | 16° | — | — | 13–16° |
| 14d · 2026-10-07 | 12° | 20° | 16° | — | 14° | — | — | 12–20° |
| 13d · 2026-10-08 | 19° | 18° | 17° | — | 19° | — | — | 17–19° |
| 12d · 2026-10-09 | 21° | 24° | 21° | — | 19° | — | — | 19–24° |
| 11d · 2026-10-10 | 17° | 20° | 20° | — | 20° | — | — | 17–20° |
| 10d · 2026-10-11 | 17° | 18° | 20° | — | 26° | — | — | 17–26° |
| 9d · 2026-10-12 | — | 23° | 19° | 20° | 21° | — | — | 19–23° |
| 8d · 2026-10-13 | 22° | 20° | 22° | 20° | 21° | — | — | 20–22° |
| 7d · 2026-10-14 | 21° | 22° | 19° | 18° | 23° | — | — | 18–23° |
| 6d · 2026-10-15 | 21° | 21° | 20° | 18° | 22° | 20° | 18° | 18–22° |
| 5d · 2026-10-16 | 21° | 21° | 21° | 17° | 21° | 19° | 19° | 17–21° |
| 4d · 2026-10-17 | 20° | 21° | 19° | 18° | 21° | 19° | 18° | 18–21° |
| 3d · 2026-10-18 | 20° | 21° | 19° | 19° | 21° | 20° | 17° | 17–21° |
| 2d · 2026-10-19 | 21° | 21° | 20° | 20° | 22° | 21° | 19° | 19–22° |
| 1d · 2026-10-20 | 21° | 21° | 20° | 22° | 22° | 21° | 20° | 20–22° |
| actual | 22° |
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.