The Spread

Was the forecast right for Phoenix on Thu Aug 13?

Phoenix, Arizona · daily high temperature in °C · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against ERA5

13 days out, 4 models put Phoenix's Thu Aug 13 high anywhere from 38° to 41°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 37°. ERA5 says the day verified at 36° with 0.8 mm of precipitation — drizzle.

AIGFS landed closest, off by 0.6°. ICON ran 2° cold.

13 days out the models said 38–41; it hit 36. AIGFS led (off 0.6°C); ICON 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 Thu Aug 13 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 Phoenix scoreboard shows them, labelled.

Lead AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-07-29 40° 40° 40–40°
14d · 2026-07-30 32° 40° 41° 32–41°
13d · 2026-07-31 41° 38° 40° 41° 38–41°
12d · 2026-08-01 36° 32° 40° 42° 32–42°
11d · 2026-08-02 37° 37° 40° 40° 37–40°
10d · 2026-08-03 36° 41° 36° 42° 36–42°
9d · 2026-08-04 34° 36° 40° 41° 34–41°
8d · 2026-08-05 34° 36° 32° 42° 40° 32–42°
7d · 2026-08-06 35° 35° 41° 39° 37° 35–41°
6d · 2026-08-07 34° 38° 39° 39° 39° 35° 34–39°
5d · 2026-08-08 37° 38° 35° 38° 38° 33° 37° 33–38°
4d · 2026-08-09 38° 38° 36° 36° 35° 33° 32° 32–38°
3d · 2026-08-10 35° 38° 36° 36° 36° 34° 39° 34–39°
2d · 2026-08-11 36° 37° 35° 37° 39° 33° 37° 33–39°
1d · 2026-08-12 36° 37° 35° 37° 39° 33° 38° 33–39°
0d · 2026-08-13 34° 37° 37° 37° 37° 34° 38° 34–38°
actual 36°

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 Phoenix — 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 ERA5 reanalysis (temperature_2m_max). Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.