Was the forecast right for Washington on Wed Aug 12?
Washington, District of Columbia · daily high temperature in °F · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against the ECMWF IFS analysis
14 days out, 4 models put Washington's Wed Aug 12 high anywhere from 82° to 90°;by the final call, the day before, the field had settled to a median of 90°. The day verified at 87° against the ECMWF IFS analysis, with 0.06 in of precipitation — drizzle.
AIGFS landed closest, off by 0.3°. GEM ran 4° warm.
What every model said, at every lead
Daily-high calls for Wed Aug 12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15d · 2026-07-28 | — | 85° | — | — | 105° | — | — | 85–105° |
| 14d · 2026-07-29 | 83° | 90° | 82° | — | 86° | — | — | 82–90° |
| 13d · 2026-07-30 | 90° | 78° | 84° | — | 74° | — | — | 74–90° |
| 12d · 2026-07-31 | 90° | 81° | 90° | — | 85° | — | — | 81–90° |
| 11d · 2026-08-01 | 82° | 84° | 86° | — | 100° | — | — | 82–100° |
| 10d · 2026-08-02 | 83° | 86° | 96° | — | 77° | — | — | 77–96° |
| 9d · 2026-08-03 | 79° | 85° | 88° | 88° | 77° | — | — | 77–88° |
| 8d · 2026-08-04 | 86° | 79° | 88° | 86° | 81° | — | — | 79–88° |
| 7d · 2026-08-05 | 88° | 84° | 91° | 89° | 90° | — | — | 84–91° |
| 6d · 2026-08-06 | 86° | 85° | 90° | 87° | 86° | 86° | 87° | 85–90° |
| 5d · 2026-08-07 | 85° | 86° | 92° | 83° | 84° | 94° | 96° | 83–96° |
| 4d · 2026-08-08 | 84° | 84° | 90° | 86° | 94° | 89° | 85° | 84–94° |
| 3d · 2026-08-09 | 86° | 84° | 89° | 82° | 88° | 89° | 89° | 82–89° |
| 2d · 2026-08-10 | 86° | 88° | 88° | 86° | 91° | 84° | 83° | 83–91° |
| 1d · 2026-08-11 | 87° | 87° | 90° | 92° | 90° | 90° | 89° | 87–92° |
| actual | 87° |
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.