The Spread

Was the forecast right for San Francisco on Thu Aug 13?

San Francisco, California · daily high temperature in °C · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against ERA5

13 days out, 4 models put San Francisco's Thu Aug 13 high anywhere from 18° to 22°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 19°. ERA5 says the day verified at 19° — drizzle.

ECMWF landed closest, off by 0.2°. AIGFS ran 2° hot.

13 days out the models said 18–22; it hit 19. ECMWF led (off 0.2°C); AIGFS 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 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 San Francisco scoreboard shows them, labelled.

Lead AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-07-29 22° 20° 20–22°
14d · 2026-07-30 20° 22° 23° 20–23°
13d · 2026-07-31 22° 19° 18° 22° 18–22°
12d · 2026-08-01 19° 23° 20° 27° 19–27°
11d · 2026-08-02 20° 26° 19° 21° 19–26°
10d · 2026-08-03 19° 24° 19° 25° 19–25°
9d · 2026-08-04 19° 22° 20° 20° 19–22°
8d · 2026-08-05 19° 21° 20° 21° 22° 19–22°
7d · 2026-08-06 20° 20° 20° 19° 21° 19–21°
6d · 2026-08-07 20° 23° 20° 20° 23° 19° 19–23°
5d · 2026-08-08 19° 23° 22° 22° 23° 19° 20° 19–23°
4d · 2026-08-09 18° 23° 22° 21° 21° 19° 20° 18–23°
3d · 2026-08-10 18° 20° 22° 18° 20° 18° 19° 18–22°
2d · 2026-08-11 18° 19° 18° 17° 19° 18° 18° 17–19°
1d · 2026-08-12 18° 20° 19° 19° 18° 18° 19° 18–20°
0d · 2026-08-13 18° 20° 19° 18° 19° 18° 19° 18–20°
actual 19°

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 San Francisco — 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.