The Spread

Was the forecast right for Washington on Sun Aug 9?

Washington, District of Columbia · daily high temperature in °C · forecasts from each model's archived runs, verified against ERA5

13 days out, 4 models put Washington's Sun Aug 9 high anywhere from 26° to 33°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 35°. ERA5 says the day verified at 33° — partly cloudy.

ICON landed closest, off by 0.7°. GEM ran 3° hot.

13 days out the models said 26–33; it hit 33. ICON led (off 0.7°C); GEM ran 3°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 Sun Aug 9 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
13d · 2026-07-27 33° 26° 32° 33° 26–33°
12d · 2026-07-28 32° 33° 31° 38° 31–38°
11d · 2026-07-29 31° 32° 33° 34° 31–34°
10d · 2026-07-30 31° 35° 34° 34° 31–35°
9d · 2026-07-31 33° 34° 32° 36° 32–36°
8d · 2026-08-01 33° 35° 33° 34° 36° 33–36°
7d · 2026-08-02 33° 31° 32° 33° 37° 31–37°
6d · 2026-08-03 33° 33° 31° 34° 37° 33° 31–37°
5d · 2026-08-04 33° 33° 31° 29° 36° 36° 33° 29–36°
4d · 2026-08-05 34° 33° 32° 29° 35° 34° 33° 29–35°
3d · 2026-08-06 34° 33° 32° 31° 35° 34° 33° 31–35°
2d · 2026-08-07 34° 32° 34° 33° 36° 34° 34° 32–36°
1d · 2026-08-08 35° 34° 34° 35° 36° 35° 34° 34–36°
0d · 2026-08-09 35° 35° 34° 36° 36° 34° 34° 34–36°
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 ERA5 reanalysis (temperature_2m_max). Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.