The Spread

Was the forecast right for Minneapolis on Wed Aug 19?

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

13 days out, 4 models put Minneapolis's Wed Aug 19 high anywhere from 75° to 81°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 80°. The day verified at 81° against the ECMWF IFS analysis — partly cloudy.

ICON landed closest, off by 0.5°. GEM ran 3° hot.

13 days out the models said 75–81; it hit 81. ICON led (off 0.5°F); GEM ran 3°F 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 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 Minneapolis scoreboard shows them, labelled.

Lead AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-08-04 74° 88° 74–88°
14d · 2026-08-05 83° 77° 83° 77–83°
13d · 2026-08-06 78° 75° 77° 81° 75–81°
12d · 2026-08-07 85° 79° 84° 86° 79–86°
11d · 2026-08-08 78° 80° 76° 74° 74–80°
10d · 2026-08-09 82° 73° 80° 84° 73–84°
9d · 2026-08-10 86° 81° 85° 92° 81–92°
8d · 2026-08-11 84° 80° 83° 79° 88° 79–88°
7d · 2026-08-12 80° 81° 80° 82° 92° 80–92°
6d · 2026-08-13 72° 71° 80° 69° 92° 81° 69–92°
5d · 2026-08-14 70° 71° 75° 72° 79° 75° 75° 70–79°
4d · 2026-08-15 77° 70° 80° 71° 88° 78° 78° 70–88°
3d · 2026-08-16 80° 75° 78° 74° 84° 78° 80° 74–84°
2d · 2026-08-17 82° 77° 80° 79° 86° 78° 77° 77–86°
1d · 2026-08-18 81° 77° 80° 79° 82° 78° 80° 77–82°
0d · 2026-08-19 79° 79° 83° 84° 84° 80° 79° 79–84°
actual 81°

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.