The Spread

Was the forecast right for Charlotte on Sun Aug 16?

Charlotte, North Carolina · daily high temperature in °C · 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 23° to 33°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 35°. The ECMWF IFS analysis says the day verified at 36° with 1.3 mm of precipitation — thunderstorms.

GFS landed closest, off by 0.1°. ICON ran 3° cold.

13 days out the models said 23–33; it hit 36. GFS led (off 0.1°C); ICON ran 3°C 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 30° 37° 30–37°
14d · 2026-08-02 30° 28° 36° 28–36°
13d · 2026-08-03 33° 23° 30° 25° 23–33°
12d · 2026-08-04 28° 26° 30° 24° 24–30°
11d · 2026-08-05 31° 31° 34° 28° 28–34°
10d · 2026-08-06 35° 30° 32° 39° 30–39°
9d · 2026-08-07 35° 32° 34° 36° 32–36°
8d · 2026-08-08 33° 31° 38° 29° 32° 29–38°
7d · 2026-08-09 31° 36° 35° 25° 32° 25–36°
6d · 2026-08-10 32° 36° 38° 30° 38° 37° 30–38°
5d · 2026-08-11 32° 36° 36° 30° 38° 38° 37° 30–38°
4d · 2026-08-12 35° 36° 34° 32° 39° 36° 37° 32–39°
3d · 2026-08-13 34° 35° 36° 32° 39° 35° 34° 32–39°
2d · 2026-08-14 34° 36° 35° 33° 40° 32° 36° 32–40°
1d · 2026-08-15 34° 36° 35° 37° 37° 34° 36° 34–37°
0d · 2026-08-16 35° 36° 34° 37° 36° 33° 35° 33–37°
actual 36°

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.