The Spread

Was the forecast right for Washington on Sat Sep 5?

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 Sat Sep 5 high anywhere from 23° to 29°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 28°. The day verified at 29° against the DCA observations — drizzle.

GFS landed closest, off by 0.6°. ICON ran 2° cold.

13 days out the models said 23–29; it hit 29. GFS led (off 0.6°C); ICON ran 2°C cold.
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 Sat Sep 5 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 · 2026-08-21 31° 35° 31–35°
14d · 2026-08-22 32° 26° 29° 26–32°
13d · 2026-08-23 29° 23° 28° 28° 23–29°
12d · 2026-08-24 27° 26° 26° 20° 20–27°
11d · 2026-08-25 34° 26° 37° 28° 26–37°
10d · 2026-08-26 32° 34° 30° 24° 24–34°
9d · 2026-08-27 29° 35° 28° 29° 28–35°
8d · 2026-08-28 28° 27° 31° 32° 32° 27–32°
7d · 2026-08-29 28° 29° 27° 32° 35° 27–35°
6d · 2026-08-30 30° 27° 30° 31° 24° 31° 24–31°
5d · 2026-08-31 29° 28° 30° 29° 32° 28° 29° 28–32°
4d · 2026-09-01 30° 29° 30° 30° 30° 29° 30° 29–30°
3d · 2026-09-02 29° 29° 28° 28° 32° 29° 29° 28–32°
2d · 2026-09-03 28° 30° 29° 26° 31° 27° 30° 26–31°
1d · 2026-09-04 28° 29° 29° 30° 29° 26° 30° 26–30°
0d · 2026-09-05 28° 28° 30° 29° 30° 28° 28° 28–30°
actual 29°

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.