The Spread

Was the forecast right for Minneapolis on Sun Aug 16?

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 Sun Aug 16 high anywhere from 21° 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° — cloudy.

ECMWF landed closest, off by 0.1°. AIGFS ran 2° cold.

13 days out the models said 21–32; it hit 27. ECMWF led (off 0.1°C); AIGFS 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 Sun Aug 16 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 · 2026-08-01 26° 32° 26–32°
14d · 2026-08-02 28° 30° 23° 23–30°
13d · 2026-08-03 26° 27° 21° 32° 21–32°
12d · 2026-08-04 22° 23° 27° 26° 22–27°
11d · 2026-08-05 24° 21° 23° 29° 21–29°
10d · 2026-08-06 26° 18° 28° 25° 18–28°
9d · 2026-08-07 26° 22° 25° 28° 22–28°
8d · 2026-08-08 26° 27° 28° 22° 22° 22–28°
7d · 2026-08-09 26° 20° 29° 22° 28° 20–29°
6d · 2026-08-10 25° 22° 23° 26° 28° 30° 22–30°
5d · 2026-08-11 26° 24° 27° 26° 27° 26° 29° 24–29°
4d · 2026-08-12 26° 26° 29° 26° 30° 27° 27° 26–30°
3d · 2026-08-13 25° 26° 29° 26° 29° 27° 28° 25–29°
2d · 2026-08-14 25° 25° 28° 26° 30° 27° 28° 25–30°
1d · 2026-08-15 26° 24° 28° 26° 27° 26° 28° 24–28°
0d · 2026-08-16 26° 25° 27° 28° 28° 26° 27° 25–28°
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.