The Spread

Was the forecast right for Minneapolis on Mon Aug 17?

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 Mon Aug 17 high anywhere from 23° to 28°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 29°. The ECMWF IFS analysis says the day verified at 29° with 0.3 mm of precipitation — drizzle.

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

13 days out the models said 23–28; it hit 29. AIFS led (off 0.3°C); GEM 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 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 Minneapolis scoreboard shows them, labelled.

Lead AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-08-02 26° 30° 26–30°
14d · 2026-08-03 27° 29° 30° 27–30°
13d · 2026-08-04 24° 23° 27° 28° 23–28°
12d · 2026-08-05 22° 25° 31° 28° 22–31°
11d · 2026-08-06 26° 21° 26° 27° 21–27°
10d · 2026-08-07 27° 25° 22° 29° 22–29°
9d · 2026-08-08 26° 27° 20° 18° 18–27°
8d · 2026-08-09 25° 24° 26° 26° 31° 24–31°
7d · 2026-08-10 26° 24° 25° 26° 29° 24–29°
6d · 2026-08-11 27° 27° 27° 27° 29° 29° 27–29°
5d · 2026-08-12 28° 27° 29° 27° 32° 28° 27° 27–32°
4d · 2026-08-13 27° 27° 29° 27° 31° 29° 29° 27–31°
3d · 2026-08-14 27° 26° 28° 28° 32° 28° 28° 26–32°
2d · 2026-08-15 27° 26° 29° 28° 31° 28° 29° 26–31°
1d · 2026-08-16 28° 26° 29° 30° 30° 28° 29° 26–30°
0d · 2026-08-17 29° 28° 28° 31° 30° 28° 29° 28–31°
actual 29°

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.