Was the forecast right for Washington on Fri Aug 14?
Washington, District of Columbia · daily high temperature in °C · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against the ECMWF IFS analysis
14 days out, 4 models put Washington's Fri Aug 14 high anywhere from 27° to 37°;by the final call, the day before, the field had settled to a median of 30°. The day verified at 26° against the ECMWF IFS analysis, with 13.5 mm of precipitation — thunderstorms.
AIGFS landed closest, off by 1.6°. GEM ran 6° warm.
What every model said, at every lead
Daily-high calls for Fri Aug 14 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 · 2026-07-30 | — | 28° | — | — | 21° | — | — | 21–28° |
| 14d · 2026-07-31 | 30° | 27° | 37° | — | 29° | — | — | 27–37° |
| 13d · 2026-08-01 | 30° | 24° | 32° | — | 33° | — | — | 24–33° |
| 12d · 2026-08-02 | 23° | 35° | 28° | — | 30° | — | — | 23–35° |
| 11d · 2026-08-03 | 27° | 25° | 34° | — | 28° | — | — | 25–34° |
| 10d · 2026-08-04 | 29° | 31° | 35° | — | 30° | — | — | 29–35° |
| 9d · 2026-08-05 | 30° | 29° | 30° | 29° | 33° | — | — | 29–33° |
| 8d · 2026-08-06 | 30° | 29° | 31° | 31° | 27° | — | — | 27–31° |
| 7d · 2026-08-07 | 31° | 30° | 27° | 27° | 30° | — | — | 27–31° |
| 6d · 2026-08-08 | 30° | 24° | 32° | 29° | 23° | 30° | 31° | 23–32° |
| 5d · 2026-08-09 | 30° | 29° | 33° | 29° | 25° | 31° | 31° | 25–33° |
| 4d · 2026-08-10 | 31° | 31° | 31° | 28° | 31° | 31° | 32° | 28–32° |
| 3d · 2026-08-11 | 31° | 30° | 27° | 28° | 31° | 31° | 28° | 27–31° |
| 2d · 2026-08-12 | 29° | 31° | 28° | 33° | 28° | 28° | 33° | 28–33° |
| 1d · 2026-08-13 | 30° | 28° | 31° | 32° | 29° | 29° | 31° | 28–32° |
| actual | 26° |
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.