Was the forecast right for Denver on Wed Aug 12?
Denver, Colorado · daily high temperature in °F · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against the ECMWF IFS analysis
14 days out, 4 models put Denver's Wed Aug 12 high anywhere from 73° to 99°;by the final call, the day before, the field had settled to a median of 93°. The day verified at 94° against the ECMWF IFS analysis, with 0.04 in of precipitation — drizzle.
ECMWF landed closest, off by 0.5°. AIFS ran 5° cool.
What every model said, at every lead
Daily-high calls for Wed Aug 12 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 Denver scoreboard shows them, labelled.
| Lead | AIFS | AIGFS | ECMWF | GEM | GFS | ICON | UKMO | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15d · 2026-07-28 | — | 94° | — | — | 101° | — | — | 94–101° |
| 14d · 2026-07-29 | 73° | 91° | 99° | — | 99° | — | — | 73–99° |
| 13d · 2026-07-30 | 85° | 79° | 92° | — | 94° | — | — | 79–94° |
| 12d · 2026-07-31 | 87° | 82° | 100° | — | 92° | — | — | 82–100° |
| 11d · 2026-08-01 | 89° | 74° | 90° | — | 97° | — | — | 74–97° |
| 10d · 2026-08-02 | 82° | 84° | 80° | — | 95° | — | — | 80–95° |
| 9d · 2026-08-03 | 75° | 85° | 90° | 76° | 99° | — | — | 75–99° |
| 8d · 2026-08-04 | 78° | 84° | 96° | 79° | 98° | — | — | 78–98° |
| 7d · 2026-08-05 | 86° | 90° | 88° | 90° | 96° | — | — | 86–96° |
| 6d · 2026-08-06 | 86° | 88° | 93° | 80° | 100° | 86° | 92° | 80–100° |
| 5d · 2026-08-07 | 88° | 89° | 97° | 92° | 100° | 94° | 96° | 88–100° |
| 4d · 2026-08-08 | 88° | 88° | 92° | 92° | 99° | 96° | 91° | 88–99° |
| 3d · 2026-08-09 | 88° | 89° | 95° | 90° | 97° | 96° | 90° | 88–97° |
| 2d · 2026-08-10 | 88° | 89° | 95° | 92° | 94° | 96° | 92° | 88–96° |
| 1d · 2026-08-11 | 89° | 91° | 93° | 92° | 96° | 95° | 93° | 89–96° |
| actual | 94° |
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 Denver — 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 ECMWF IFS analysis (temperature_2m_max). 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.