The Spread

Was the forecast right for San Francisco on Tue Aug 18?

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

13 days out, 4 models put San Francisco's Tue Aug 18 high anywhere from 18° to 25°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 19°. The day verified at 18° against the ECMWF IFS analysis — cloudy.

GEM landed closest, off by 0.4°. AIGFS ran 5° hot.

13 days out the models said 18–25; it hit 18. GEM led (off 0.4°C); AIGFS ran 5°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 Tue Aug 18 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 · 2026-08-03 20° 20° 20–20°
14d · 2026-08-04 19° 20° 20° 19–20°
13d · 2026-08-05 21° 19° 18° 25° 18–25°
12d · 2026-08-06 18° 22° 19° 22° 18–22°
11d · 2026-08-07 23° 20° 18° 21° 18–23°
10d · 2026-08-08 22° 24° 18° 21° 18–24°
9d · 2026-08-09 19° 26° 22° 23° 19–26°
8d · 2026-08-10 20° 24° 18° 18° 21° 18–24°
7d · 2026-08-11 20° 19° 19° 17° 22° 17–22°
6d · 2026-08-12 20° 20° 19° 17° 21° 17° 17–21°
5d · 2026-08-13 21° 23° 18° 18° 19° 16° 19° 16–23°
4d · 2026-08-14 22° 20° 20° 17° 21° 17° 18° 17–22°
3d · 2026-08-15 23° 21° 18° 18° 22° 17° 19° 17–23°
2d · 2026-08-16 23° 22° 19° 18° 22° 16° 20° 16–23°
1d · 2026-08-17 22° 23° 20° 18° 21° 17° 19° 17–23°
0d · 2026-08-18 21° 23° 20° 18° 19° 17° 19° 17–23°
actual 18°

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 the ECMWF IFS analysis (temperature_2m_max). Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.