The Spread

Was the forecast right for New Orleans on Sun Aug 16?

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

13 days out, 4 models put New Orleans's Sun Aug 16 high anywhere from 89° to 95°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 96°. The ECMWF IFS analysis says the day verified at 95° with 0.04 in of precipitation — drizzle.

ICON landed closest, off by 0.1°. GFS ran 4° hot.

13 days out the models said 89–95; it hit 95. ICON led (off 0.1°F); GFS ran 4°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 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 New Orleans scoreboard shows them, labelled.

Lead AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-08-01 96° 98° 96–98°
14d · 2026-08-02 86° 93° 95° 86–95°
13d · 2026-08-03 89° 94° 92° 95° 89–95°
12d · 2026-08-04 88° 96° 85° 100° 85–100°
11d · 2026-08-05 90° 97° 90° 95° 90–97°
10d · 2026-08-06 88° 98° 87° 102° 87–102°
9d · 2026-08-07 90° 98° 90° 98° 90–98°
8d · 2026-08-08 91° 95° 89° 94° 99° 89–99°
7d · 2026-08-09 90° 95° 91° 94° 99° 90–99°
6d · 2026-08-10 90° 96° 90° 95° 96° 92° 90–96°
5d · 2026-08-11 91° 96° 95° 95° 97° 96° 98° 91–98°
4d · 2026-08-12 90° 96° 91° 96° 100° 91° 99° 90–100°
3d · 2026-08-13 91° 98° 90° 95° 100° 93° 97° 90–100°
2d · 2026-08-14 91° 97° 90° 98° 99° 98° 94° 90–99°
1d · 2026-08-15 91° 98° 94° 97° 101° 97° 96° 91–101°
0d · 2026-08-16 91° 97° 93° 98° 100° 95° 96° 91–100°
actual 95°

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 New Orleans — 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.