Was the forecast right for Chicago on Mon Oct 26?
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 Mon Oct 26 high anywhere from 15° to 20°;by the final call, the day before, the field had settled to a median of 17°. The day verified at 18° against the MDW observations — cloudy.
GEM landed closest, off by 0.0°. ECMWF ran 1° cool.
What every model said, at every lead
Daily-high calls for Mon Oct 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, labeled.
| Lead | AIFS | AIGFS | ECMWF | GEM | GFS | ICON | UKMO | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15d · 2026-10-11 | — | 15° | — | — | 14° | — | — | 14–15° |
| 14d · 2026-10-12 | — | 14° | 11° | — | 14° | — | — | 11–14° |
| 13d · 2026-10-13 | 17° | 15° | 20° | — | 16° | — | — | 15–20° |
| 12d · 2026-10-14 | 13° | 15° | 22° | — | 14° | — | — | 13–22° |
| 11d · 2026-10-15 | 20° | 19° | 22° | — | 20° | — | — | 19–22° |
| 10d · 2026-10-16 | 19° | 12° | 16° | — | 12° | — | — | 12–19° |
| 9d · 2026-10-17 | 22° | 20° | 18° | 20° | 14° | — | — | 14–22° |
| 8d · 2026-10-18 | 14° | 18° | 21° | 19° | 18° | — | — | 14–21° |
| 7d · 2026-10-19 | 15° | 24° | 18° | 21° | 16° | — | — | 15–24° |
| 6d · 2026-10-20 | 21° | 20° | 20° | 20° | 21° | 21° | 18° | 18–21° |
| 5d · 2026-10-21 | 21° | 21° | 21° | 20° | 17° | 21° | 20° | 17–21° |
| 4d · 2026-10-22 | 19° | 20° | 18° | 20° | 19° | 21° | 18° | 18–21° |
| 3d · 2026-10-23 | 17° | 19° | 17° | 19° | 18° | 20° | 17° | 17–20° |
| 2d · 2026-10-24 | 18° | 18° | 17° | 17° | 17° | 19° | 17° | 17–19° |
| 1d · 2026-10-25 | 17° | 18° | 17° | 18° | 17° | 18° | 17° | 17–18° |
| actual | 18° |
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 day was verified, usually 2 days after the date; a correction published after that is not carried into it. Archive depth varies by city; verified days exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.