The Spread

Was the forecast right for Minneapolis on Sat Aug 15?

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

13 days out, 4 models put Minneapolis's Sat Aug 15 high anywhere from 28° to 32°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 27°. The ECMWF IFS analysis says the day verified at 27° with 1.5 mm of precipitation — drizzle.

AIFS landed closest, off by 0.3°. GFS ran 2° hot.

13 days out the models said 28–32; it hit 27. AIFS led (off 0.3°C); GFS 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 Minneapolis scoreboard shows them, labelled.

Lead AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-07-31 25° 23° 23–25°
14d · 2026-08-01 29° 27° 35° 27–35°
13d · 2026-08-02 30° 29° 32° 28° 28–32°
12d · 2026-08-03 27° 26° 20° 30° 20–30°
11d · 2026-08-04 24° 21° 28° 21° 21–28°
10d · 2026-08-05 21° 25° 26° 26° 21–26°
9d · 2026-08-06 21° 23° 27° 27° 21–27°
8d · 2026-08-07 25° 18° 24° 26° 28° 18–28°
7d · 2026-08-08 24° 24° 29° 26° 23° 23–29°
6d · 2026-08-09 26° 18° 31° 25° 22° 28° 18–31°
5d · 2026-08-10 26° 23° 28° 25° 28° 23° 25° 23–28°
4d · 2026-08-11 28° 28° 26° 26° 29° 23° 26° 23–29°
3d · 2026-08-12 28° 30° 28° 27° 33° 29° 28° 27–33°
2d · 2026-08-13 26° 29° 28° 26° 28° 29° 28° 26–29°
1d · 2026-08-14 26° 26° 27° 27° 31° 25° 28° 25–31°
0d · 2026-08-15 26° 26° 28° 28° 29° 27° 27° 26–29°
actual 27°

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 Minneapolis — 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.