The Spread

Was the forecast right for Minneapolis on Wed Aug 19?

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 Wed Aug 19 high anywhere from 24° to 27°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 27°. The day verified at 27° against the ECMWF IFS analysis — partly cloudy.

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

13 days out the models said 24–27; it hit 27. ICON 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 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 23° 31° 23–31°
14d · 2026-08-05 28° 25° 28° 25–28°
13d · 2026-08-06 26° 24° 25° 27° 24–27°
12d · 2026-08-07 30° 26° 29° 30° 26–30°
11d · 2026-08-08 25° 26° 24° 23° 23–26°
10d · 2026-08-09 28° 23° 27° 29° 23–29°
9d · 2026-08-10 30° 27° 30° 33° 27–33°
8d · 2026-08-11 29° 27° 28° 26° 31° 26–31°
7d · 2026-08-12 27° 27° 26° 28° 33° 26–33°
6d · 2026-08-13 22° 22° 26° 20° 33° 27° 20–33°
5d · 2026-08-14 21° 22° 24° 22° 26° 24° 24° 21–26°
4d · 2026-08-15 25° 21° 27° 22° 31° 26° 26° 21–31°
3d · 2026-08-16 27° 24° 26° 24° 29° 26° 27° 24–29°
2d · 2026-08-17 28° 25° 26° 26° 30° 25° 25° 25–30°
1d · 2026-08-18 27° 25° 26° 26° 28° 25° 27° 25–28°
0d · 2026-08-19 26° 26° 28° 29° 29° 27° 26° 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.