The Spread

Was the forecast right for Washington on Fri Sep 4?

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

13 days out, 4 models put Washington's Fri Sep 4 high anywhere from 76° to 88°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 92°. The day verified at 90° against the DCA observations — drizzle.

GEM landed closest, off by 1.0°. GFS ran 7° hot.

13 days out the models said 76–88; it hit 90. GEM led (off 1.0°F); GFS ran 7°F 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 Fri Sep 4 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
15d · 2026-08-20 77° 82° 77–82°
14d · 2026-08-21 74° 88° 93° 74–93°
13d · 2026-08-22 88° 76° 86° 82° 76–88°
12d · 2026-08-23 86° 76° 80° 95° 76–95°
11d · 2026-08-24 84° 86° 91° 66° 66–91°
10d · 2026-08-25 90° 88° 106° 82° 82–106°
9d · 2026-08-26 89° 91° 96° 97° 89–97°
8d · 2026-08-27 87° 87° 89° 87° 107° 87–107°
7d · 2026-08-28 86° 82° 88° 88° 101° 82–101°
6d · 2026-08-29 86° 89° 96° 91° 95° 98° 86–98°
5d · 2026-08-30 93° 93° 98° 92° 88° 97° 97° 88–98°
4d · 2026-08-31 94° 91° 90° 92° 101° 87° 92° 87–101°
3d · 2026-09-01 90° 92° 94° 90° 98° 92° 92° 90–98°
2d · 2026-09-02 91° 93° 95° 94° 97° 93° 91° 91–97°
1d · 2026-09-03 91° 93° 95° 89° 100° 95° 92° 89–100°
0d · 2026-09-04 92° 93° 92° 89° 97° 92° 95° 89–97°
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 DCA observations. Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.