The Spread

Was the forecast right for Washington on Sat Sep 12?

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 Sat Sep 12 high anywhere from 65° to 90°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 83°. The day verified at 81° against the DCA observations — thunderstorms.

AIGFS landed closest, off by 0.2°. GFS ran 5° hot.

13 days out the models said 65–90; it hit 81. AIGFS led (off 0.2°F); GFS ran 5°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 Sat Sep 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 AIFSAIGFSECMWFGEMGFSICONUKMO Range
15d · 2026-08-28 84° 80° 80–84°
14d · 2026-08-29 91° 86° 88° 86–91°
13d · 2026-08-30 82° 90° 72° 65° 65–90°
12d · 2026-08-31 96° 85° 85° 78° 78–96°
11d · 2026-09-01 97° 90° 93° 90° 90–97°
10d · 2026-09-02 84° 95° 87° 87° 84–95°
9d · 2026-09-03 74° 82° 73° 82° 73–82°
8d · 2026-09-04 81° 84° 81° 76° 66° 66–84°
7d · 2026-09-05 87° 80° 79° 83° 84° 79–87°
6d · 2026-09-06 84° 83° 84° 80° 89° 85° 80–89°
5d · 2026-09-07 78° 83° 86° 82° 84° 83° 84° 78–86°
4d · 2026-09-08 74° 76° 86° 80° 85° 81° 80° 74–86°
3d · 2026-09-09 80° 81° 80° 78° 72° 78° 85° 72–85°
2d · 2026-09-10 80° 81° 84° 85° 84° 84° 79° 79–85°
1d · 2026-09-11 79° 81° 82° 84° 84° 83° 83° 79–84°
0d · 2026-09-12 80° 81° 82° 84° 86° 85° 83° 80–86°
actual 81°

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.