The Spread

Was the forecast right for Denver on Fri Aug 14?

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

13 days out, 4 models put Denver's Fri Aug 14 high anywhere from 72° to 95°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 84°. The ECMWF IFS analysis says the day verified at 86° with 0.06 in of precipitation — drizzle.

ICON landed closest, off by 0.3°. GEM ran 9° cold.

13 days out the models said 72–95; it hit 86. ICON led (off 0.3°F); GEM ran 9°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 Fri Aug 14 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 AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-07-30 84° 97° 84–97°
14d · 2026-07-31 74° 80° 84° 74–84°
13d · 2026-08-01 80° 72° 88° 95° 72–95°
12d · 2026-08-02 82° 81° 88° 96° 81–96°
11d · 2026-08-03 79° 88° 71° 100° 71–100°
10d · 2026-08-04 79° 80° 100° 96° 79–100°
9d · 2026-08-05 77° 80° 74° 92° 74–92°
8d · 2026-08-06 65° 80° 79° 75° 89° 65–89°
7d · 2026-08-07 58° 79° 78° 79° 82° 58–82°
6d · 2026-08-08 79° 76° 75° 86° 88° 84° 75–88°
5d · 2026-08-09 81° 80° 84° 76° 82° 83° 77° 76–84°
4d · 2026-08-10 78° 82° 80° 80° 89° 88° 87° 78–89°
3d · 2026-08-11 80° 82° 82° 77° 92° 89° 83° 77–92°
2d · 2026-08-12 82° 83° 82° 82° 92° 84° 83° 82–92°
1d · 2026-08-13 80° 81° 76° 77° 89° 87° 83° 76–89°
0d · 2026-08-14 82° 81° 84° 77° 90° 86° 86° 77–90°
actual 86°

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