The Spread

Was the forecast right for Washington on Thu Sep 3?

Washington, District of Columbia · daily high temperature in °C · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against the DCA observations

13 days out, 4 models put Washington's Thu Sep 3 high anywhere from 26° to 38°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 34°. The day verified at 33° against the DCA observations, with 31.8 mm of precipitation — drizzle.

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

13 days out the models said 26–38; it hit 33. GEM led (off 0.4°C); GFS 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 Thu Sep 3 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 AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
14d · 2026-08-20 23° 20° 30° 20–30°
13d · 2026-08-21 26° 30° 28° 38° 26–38°
12d · 2026-08-22 31° 23° 29° 30° 23–31°
11d · 2026-08-23 33° 24° 29° 33° 24–33°
10d · 2026-08-24 31° 30° 34° 21° 21–34°
9d · 2026-08-25 32° 33° 36° 30° 30–36°
8d · 2026-08-26 32° 34° 39° 32° 38° 32–39°
7d · 2026-08-27 30° 32° 33° 35° 34° 30–35°
6d · 2026-08-28 32° 31° 38° 33° 40° 34° 31–40°
5d · 2026-08-29 37° 36° 42° 37° 40° 38° 36° 36–42°
4d · 2026-08-30 37° 36° 38° 37° 38° 38° 36° 36–38°
3d · 2026-08-31 34° 35° 34° 39° 39° 37° 37° 34–39°
2d · 2026-09-01 32° 36° 34° 36° 37° 35° 37° 32–37°
1d · 2026-09-02 33° 36° 33° 33° 38° 36° 36° 33–38°
0d · 2026-09-03 32° 34° 34° 33° 38° 35° 36° 32–38°
actual 33°

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 DCA observations. Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.