The Spread

Was the forecast right for London on Wed Aug 19?

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

8 days out, 5 models put London's Wed Aug 19 high anywhere from 20° to 25°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 24°. The day verified at 23° against the ECMWF IFS analysis, with 2.3 mm of precipitation — drizzle.

UKMO landed closest, off by 0.1°. AIFS ran 2° cold.

8 days out the models said 20–25; it hit 23. UKMO led (off 0.1°C); AIFS ran 2°C 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 Wed Aug 19 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 London scoreboard shows them, labelled.

Lead AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
8d · 2026-08-11 20° 21° 25° 25° 20° 20–25°
7d · 2026-08-12 21° 20° 21° 22° 24° 20–24°
6d · 2026-08-13 23° 21° 24° 23° 24° 24° 25° 21–25°
5d · 2026-08-14 22° 22° 22° 22° 23° 24° 20° 20–24°
4d · 2026-08-15 22° 22° 23° 23° 25° 24° 23° 22–25°
3d · 2026-08-16 22° 22° 23° 24° 24° 24° 22° 22–24°
2d · 2026-08-17 22° 22° 23° 24° 23° 24° 23° 22–24°
1d · 2026-08-18 23° 22° 23° 24° 24° 24° 24° 22–24°
0d · 2026-08-19 22° 22° 25° 24° 25° 24° 23° 22–25°
actual 23°

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 London — 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.