Was the forecast right for Washington on Sat Aug 8?
Washington, District of Columbia · daily high temperature in °F · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against the ECMWF IFS analysis
13 days out, 4 models put Washington's Sat Aug 8 high anywhere from 82° 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 0.09 in of precipitation — drizzle.
ICON landed closest, off by 1.1°. GFS ran 5° warm.
What every model said, at every lead
Daily-high calls for Sat Aug 8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13d · 2026-07-26 | 82° | 82° | 91° | — | 86° | — | — | 82–91° |
| 12d · 2026-07-27 | 94° | 90° | 88° | — | 95° | — | — | 88–95° |
| 11d · 2026-07-28 | 93° | 86° | 89° | — | 90° | — | — | 86–93° |
| 10d · 2026-07-29 | 92° | 90° | 90° | — | 93° | — | — | 90–93° |
| 9d · 2026-07-30 | 90° | 96° | 95° | 95° | 93° | — | — | 90–96° |
| 8d · 2026-07-31 | 93° | 94° | 89° | 92° | 98° | — | — | 89–98° |
| 7d · 2026-08-01 | 88° | 94° | 86° | 92° | 99° | — | — | 86–99° |
| 6d · 2026-08-02 | 89° | 92° | 88° | 94° | 97° | 85° | 93° | 85–97° |
| 5d · 2026-08-03 | 91° | 90° | 89° | 91° | 94° | 89° | 93° | 89–94° |
| 4d · 2026-08-04 | 93° | 90° | 91° | 91° | 93° | 89° | 95° | 89–95° |
| 3d · 2026-08-05 | 91° | 92° | 90° | 94° | 96° | 91° | 96° | 90–96° |
| 2d · 2026-08-06 | 92° | 92° | 92° | 91° | 96° | 91° | 93° | 91–96° |
| 1d · 2026-08-07 | 93° | 92° | 95° | 92° | 95° | 92° | 94° | 92–95° |
| 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.