The Spread

Was the forecast right for Washington on Tue Aug 11?

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 Tue Aug 11 high anywhere from 87° to 90°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 90°. ERA5 says the day verified at 88° with 0.05 in of precipitation — drizzle.

AIGFS landed closest, off by 0.6°. GEM ran 4° hot.

13 days out the models said 87–90; it hit 88. AIGFS led (off 0.6°F); GEM ran 4°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 Tue Aug 11 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 · 2026-07-27 89° 103° 89–103°
14d · 2026-07-28 90° 84° 88° 84–90°
13d · 2026-07-29 87° 88° 89° 90° 87–90°
12d · 2026-07-30 90° 86° 86° 83° 83–90°
11d · 2026-07-31 94° 92° 88° 95° 88–95°
10d · 2026-08-01 94° 83° 93° 95° 83–95°
9d · 2026-08-02 89° 74° 90° 90° 74–90°
8d · 2026-08-03 89° 92° 95° 91° 93° 89–95°
7d · 2026-08-04 90° 89° 94° 94° 99° 89–99°
6d · 2026-08-05 90° 89° 99° 88° 88° 98° 88–99°
5d · 2026-08-06 91° 88° 96° 94° 98° 93° 99° 88–99°
4d · 2026-08-07 88° 90° 95° 85° 95° 97° 96° 85–97°
3d · 2026-08-08 91° 92° 94° 91° 96° 83° 96° 83–96°
2d · 2026-08-09 90° 90° 92° 92° 91° 88° 96° 88–96°
1d · 2026-08-10 91° 90° 93° 90° 94° 87° 90° 87–94°
0d · 2026-08-11 87° 87° 90° 92° 87° 90° 90° 87–92°
actual 88°

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.