The Spread

Was the forecast right for Houston on Mon Aug 17?

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

13 days out, 4 models put Houston's Mon Aug 17 high anywhere from 86° to 105°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 98°. The ECMWF IFS analysis says the day verified at 98° — clear.

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

13 days out the models said 86–105; it hit 98. ECMWF led (off 0.1°F); GFS ran 3°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 Mon Aug 17 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 · 2026-08-02 96° 101° 96–101°
14d · 2026-08-03 95° 95° 103° 95–103°
13d · 2026-08-04 96° 99° 86° 105° 86–105°
12d · 2026-08-05 96° 98° 93° 103° 93–103°
11d · 2026-08-06 91° 99° 94° 104° 91–104°
10d · 2026-08-07 95° 99° 95° 103° 95–103°
9d · 2026-08-08 96° 96° 96° 100° 96–100°
8d · 2026-08-09 96° 96° 95° 98° 103° 95–103°
7d · 2026-08-10 95° 98° 96° 99° 100° 95–100°
6d · 2026-08-11 94° 99° 96° 96° 102° 99° 94–102°
5d · 2026-08-12 95° 98° 97° 99° 102° 99° 99° 95–102°
4d · 2026-08-13 95° 98° 97° 99° 102° 98° 97° 95–102°
3d · 2026-08-14 95° 98° 97° 98° 102° 99° 97° 95–102°
2d · 2026-08-15 95° 98° 98° 99° 102° 99° 98° 95–102°
1d · 2026-08-16 95° 98° 98° 99° 98° 98° 98° 95–99°
0d · 2026-08-17 96° 98° 98° 98° 95° 99° 97° 95–99°
actual 98°

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.