The Spread

Was the forecast right for Denver on Tue Aug 18?

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 Tue Aug 18 high anywhere from 79° to 87°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 91°. The day verified at 89° against the ECMWF IFS analysis — drizzle.

AIGFS landed closest, off by 1.3°. GFS ran 5° hot.

13 days out the models said 79–87; it hit 89. AIGFS led (off 1.3°F); GFS ran 5°F hot.
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 Tue Aug 18 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 · 2026-08-03 81° 95° 81–95°
14d · 2026-08-04 82° 73° 100° 73–100°
13d · 2026-08-05 79° 80° 82° 87° 79–87°
12d · 2026-08-06 79° 84° 80° 94° 79–94°
11d · 2026-08-07 76° 88° 78° 74° 74–88°
10d · 2026-08-08 82° 90° 84° 96° 82–96°
9d · 2026-08-09 80° 76° 87° 94° 76–94°
8d · 2026-08-10 86° 93° 84° 94° 90° 84–94°
7d · 2026-08-11 84° 92° 92° 89° 92° 84–92°
6d · 2026-08-12 87° 91° 94° 88° 96° 93° 87–96°
5d · 2026-08-13 88° 83° 91° 93° 93° 89° 90° 83–93°
4d · 2026-08-14 91° 86° 95° 92° 94° 89° 90° 86–95°
3d · 2026-08-15 92° 91° 96° 90° 98° 94° 90° 90–98°
2d · 2026-08-16 92° 92° 96° 90° 96° 93° 88° 88–96°
1d · 2026-08-17 88° 88° 87° 91° 92° 94° 89° 87–94°
0d · 2026-08-18 84° 88° 87° 92° 94° 94° 91° 84–94°
actual 89°

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.