Was the forecast right for Washington on Fri Aug 7?
Washington, District of Columbia · daily high temperature in °F · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against the ECMWF IFS analysis
12 days out, 4 models put Washington's Fri Aug 7 high anywhere from 76° to 91°;by the final call, the day before, the field had settled to a median of 93°. The day verified at 90° against the ECMWF IFS analysis, with 0.26 in of precipitation — rain.
ICON landed closest, off by 0.1°. GEM ran 8° warm.
What every model said, at every lead
Daily-high calls for Fri Aug 7 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 Washington scoreboard shows them, labelled.
| Lead | AIFS | AIGFS | ECMWF | GEM | GFS | ICON | UKMO | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12d · 2026-07-26 | 86° | 76° | 91° | — | 89° | — | — | 76–91° |
| 11d · 2026-07-27 | 90° | 87° | 92° | — | 97° | — | — | 87–97° |
| 10d · 2026-07-28 | 88° | 93° | 87° | — | 97° | — | — | 87–97° |
| 9d · 2026-07-29 | 92° | 93° | 89° | 90° | 95° | — | — | 89–95° |
| 8d · 2026-07-30 | 94° | 97° | 90° | 94° | 94° | — | — | 90–97° |
| 7d · 2026-07-31 | 96° | 92° | 88° | 89° | 100° | — | — | 88–100° |
| 6d · 2026-08-01 | 92° | 94° | 87° | 92° | 100° | 91° | 92° | 87–100° |
| 5d · 2026-08-02 | 89° | 93° | 88° | 90° | 98° | 91° | 92° | 88–98° |
| 4d · 2026-08-03 | 90° | 92° | 90° | 91° | 97° | 90° | 88° | 88–97° |
| 3d · 2026-08-04 | 90° | 91° | 92° | 94° | 93° | 92° | 94° | 90–94° |
| 2d · 2026-08-05 | 91° | 92° | 86° | 93° | 97° | 92° | 93° | 86–97° |
| 1d · 2026-08-06 | 91° | 93° | 92° | 98° | 96° | 90° | 94° | 90–98° |
| actual | 90° |
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 Washington — 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). The actual values are the ones in hand when this receipt was settled, usually 2 days after the date; a correction published after that is not carried into it. Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.