The Spread

Was the forecast right for Washington on Sun Aug 9?

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

13 days out, 4 models put Washington's Sun Aug 9 high anywhere from 80° to 92°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 94°. ERA5 says the day verified at 92° — partly cloudy.

ICON landed closest, off by 1.2°. GEM ran 5° hot.

13 days out the models said 80–92; it hit 92. ICON led (off 1.2°F); GEM 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 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 92° 80° 89° 91° 80–92°
12d · 2026-07-28 89° 92° 88° 100° 88–100°
11d · 2026-07-29 88° 90° 91° 94° 88–94°
10d · 2026-07-30 87° 94° 93° 94° 87–94°
9d · 2026-07-31 91° 94° 90° 98° 90–98°
8d · 2026-08-01 91° 96° 92° 94° 96° 91–96°
7d · 2026-08-02 92° 89° 89° 92° 99° 89–99°
6d · 2026-08-03 92° 92° 87° 93° 98° 92° 87–98°
5d · 2026-08-04 92° 91° 88° 84° 96° 96° 91° 84–96°
4d · 2026-08-05 93° 92° 90° 84° 95° 93° 91° 84–95°
3d · 2026-08-06 93° 92° 89° 88° 94° 93° 91° 88–94°
2d · 2026-08-07 92° 90° 93° 91° 96° 93° 93° 90–96°
1d · 2026-08-08 94° 93° 94° 96° 98° 94° 94° 93–98°
0d · 2026-08-09 95° 94° 93° 97° 96° 93° 94° 93–97°
actual 92°

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.