The Spread

Was the forecast right for Houston on Wed Aug 12?

Houston, Texas · daily high temperature in °C · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against ERA5

13 days out, 4 models put Houston's Wed Aug 12 high anywhere from 35° to 40°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 35°. ERA5 says the day verified at 34° with 1.3 mm of precipitation — drizzle.

AIFS landed closest, off by 0.4°. AIGFS ran 2° hot.

13 days out the models said 35–40; it hit 34. AIFS led (off 0.4°C); AIGFS ran 2°C 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 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 Houston scoreboard shows them, labelled.

Lead AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-07-28 36° 38° 36–38°
14d · 2026-07-29 36° 37° 38° 36–38°
13d · 2026-07-30 35° 36° 35° 40° 35–40°
12d · 2026-07-31 34° 36° 34° 40° 34–40°
11d · 2026-08-01 35° 36° 35° 38° 35–38°
10d · 2026-08-02 35° 36° 37° 37° 35–37°
9d · 2026-08-03 35° 36° 35° 37° 35–37°
8d · 2026-08-04 35° 37° 34° 36° 39° 34–39°
7d · 2026-08-05 35° 37° 33° 37° 37° 33–37°
6d · 2026-08-06 35° 36° 33° 37° 39° 37° 33–39°
5d · 2026-08-07 35° 36° 34° 36° 39° 37° 34° 34–39°
4d · 2026-08-08 35° 36° 34° 36° 40° 37° 34° 34–40°
3d · 2026-08-09 35° 35° 35° 35° 39° 36° 34° 34–39°
2d · 2026-08-10 35° 36° 35° 37° 38° 37° 36° 35–38°
1d · 2026-08-11 34° 36° 33° 36° 33° 37° 35° 33–37°
0d · 2026-08-12 35° 37° 34° 35° 36° 36° 35° 34–37°
actual 34°

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 Houston — 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 ERA5 reanalysis (temperature_2m_max). Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.