The Spread

Was the forecast right for Salt Lake City on Tue Aug 4?

Salt Lake City, Utah · daily high temperature · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against ERA5

14 days out, 4 models put Salt Lake City's Tue Aug 4 high anywhere from 98° to 103°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 88°. ERA5 says the day verified at 91° — clear.

GFS landed closest, off by 0.5°. GEM ran 5° cold.

14 days out the models said 98–103; it hit 91. GFS led (off 0.5°); GEM ran 5° 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 Tue Aug 4 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 Salt Lake City scoreboard shows them, labelled.

Lead AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-07-20 94° 104° 94–104°
14d · 2026-07-21 100° 98° 103° 103° 98–103°
13d · 2026-07-22 96° 92° 108° 100° 92–108°
12d · 2026-07-23 90° 90° 105° 105° 90–105°
11d · 2026-07-24 90° 100° 103° 105° 90–105°
10d · 2026-07-25 94° 97° 102° 105° 94–105°
9d · 2026-07-26 94° 101° 98° 95° 103° 94–103°
8d · 2026-07-27 94° 98° 100° 97° 90° 90–100°
7d · 2026-07-28 94° 96° 101° 95° 93° 93–101°
6d · 2026-07-29 91° 90° 95° 92° 91° 99° 100° 90–100°
5d · 2026-07-30 90° 87° 96° 90° 91° 92° 94° 87–96°
4d · 2026-07-31 88° 87° 94° 88° 94° 90° 93° 87–94°
3d · 2026-08-01 89° 86° 93° 89° 91° 88° 92° 86–93°
2d · 2026-08-02 89° 87° 92° 89° 91° 89° 89° 87–92°
1d · 2026-08-03 89° 88° 91° 89° 91° 88° 88° 88–91°
0d · 2026-08-04 88° 88° 90° 87° 91° 87° 88° 87–91°
actual 91°

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 Salt Lake City — 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.