The Spread

Was the forecast right for Houston on Sat Aug 15?

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

13 days out, 4 models put Houston's Sat Aug 15 high anywhere from 36° to 38°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 37°. The ECMWF IFS analysis says the day verified at 36° with 1.3 mm of precipitation — thunderstorms.

AIFS landed closest, off by 0.2°. GEM ran 2° hot.

13 days out the models said 36–38; it hit 36. AIFS led (off 0.2°C); GEM 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 Sat Aug 15 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 · 2026-07-31 37° 38° 37–38°
14d · 2026-08-01 35° 36° 38° 35–38°
13d · 2026-08-02 36° 36° 37° 38° 36–38°
12d · 2026-08-03 36° 36° 36° 39° 36–39°
11d · 2026-08-04 35° 37° 36° 39° 35–39°
10d · 2026-08-05 35° 37° 34° 40° 34–40°
9d · 2026-08-06 35° 36° 34° 38° 34–38°
8d · 2026-08-07 35° 37° 35° 36° 39° 35–39°
7d · 2026-08-08 35° 36° 35° 36° 39° 35–39°
6d · 2026-08-09 35° 35° 34° 36° 38° 35° 34–38°
5d · 2026-08-10 36° 36° 35° 37° 39° 38° 37° 35–39°
4d · 2026-08-11 35° 37° 34° 36° 39° 37° 37° 34–39°
3d · 2026-08-12 35° 37° 35° 36° 40° 37° 36° 35–40°
2d · 2026-08-13 35° 36° 35° 37° 38° 37° 36° 35–38°
1d · 2026-08-14 35° 37° 35° 37° 35° 36° 35° 35–37°
0d · 2026-08-15 36° 37° 35° 37° 36° 37° 37° 35–37°
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 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 the ECMWF IFS analysis (temperature_2m_max). Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.