The Spread

Was the forecast right for Los Angeles on Tue Aug 4?

Los Angeles, California · daily high temperature · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against ERA5

8 days out, 5 models put Los Angeles's Tue Aug 4 high anywhere from 82° to 91°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 86°. ERA5 says the day verified at 88° — clear.

GFS landed closest, off by 0.4°. AIGFS ran 12° cold.

8 days out the models said 82–91; it hit 88. GFS led (off 0.4°); AIGFS ran 12° 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 Tue Aug 4 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 Los Angeles scoreboard shows them, labelled.

Lead AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
8d · 2026-07-27 85° 82° 87° 90° 91° 82–91°
7d · 2026-07-28 85° 78° 88° 93° 91° 78–93°
6d · 2026-07-29 83° 76° 87° 93° 92° 86° 76–93°
5d · 2026-07-30 84° 77° 90° 94° 92° 85° 91° 77–94°
4d · 2026-07-31 84° 77° 91° 93° 93° 84° 88° 77–93°
3d · 2026-08-01 83° 77° 91° 93° 91° 83° 88° 77–93°
2d · 2026-08-02 83° 77° 90° 91° 91° 85° 88° 77–91°
1d · 2026-08-03 83° 78° 89° 88° 86° 84° 87° 78–89°
0d · 2026-08-04 83° 77° 88° 86° 89° 84° 86° 77–89°
actual 88°

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 Los Angeles — 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.