The Spread

Was the forecast right for Charlotte on Sun Aug 16?

Charlotte, North Carolina · daily high temperature in °F · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against the ECMWF IFS analysis

13 days out, 4 models put Charlotte's Sun Aug 16 high anywhere from 74° to 92°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 96°. The ECMWF IFS analysis says the day verified at 96° with 0.05 in of precipitation — thunderstorms.

GFS landed closest, off by 0.1°. ICON ran 5° cold.

13 days out the models said 74–92; it hit 96. GFS led (off 0.1°F); ICON ran 5°F cold.
The shareable card for this receipt — what this page looks like pasted into a thread.

What every model said, at every lead

Daily-high calls for Sun Aug 16 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 Charlotte scoreboard shows them, labelled.

Lead AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-08-01 86° 98° 86–98°
14d · 2026-08-02 87° 83° 98° 83–98°
13d · 2026-08-03 92° 74° 87° 78° 74–92°
12d · 2026-08-04 82° 80° 86° 75° 75–86°
11d · 2026-08-05 88° 87° 94° 82° 82–94°
10d · 2026-08-06 96° 86° 90° 102° 86–102°
9d · 2026-08-07 95° 89° 93° 97° 89–97°
8d · 2026-08-08 91° 88° 100° 84° 89° 84–100°
7d · 2026-08-09 87° 96° 95° 78° 90° 78–96°
6d · 2026-08-10 90° 97° 101° 87° 101° 99° 87–101°
5d · 2026-08-11 89° 97° 96° 85° 100° 100° 98° 85–100°
4d · 2026-08-12 96° 98° 94° 90° 102° 97° 98° 90–102°
3d · 2026-08-13 93° 95° 97° 90° 101° 96° 94° 90–101°
2d · 2026-08-14 94° 96° 96° 91° 104° 89° 98° 89–104°
1d · 2026-08-15 94° 96° 95° 98° 99° 92° 96° 92–99°
0d · 2026-08-16 94° 97° 93° 98° 96° 92° 96° 92–98°
actual 96°

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 Charlotte — 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). Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.