The Spread

Was the forecast right for Washington on Fri Aug 14?

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

13 days out, 4 models put Washington's Fri Aug 14 high anywhere from 24° to 33°; by the final call the field had settled to a median of 31°. The ECMWF IFS analysis says the day verified at 26° with 13.5 mm of precipitation — thunderstorms.

ICON landed closest, off by 2.1°. UKMO ran 5° hot.

13 days out the models said 24–33; it hit 26. ICON led (off 2.1°C); UKMO ran 5°C hot.
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What every model said, at every lead

Daily-high calls for Fri Aug 14 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 · 2026-07-30 28° 21° 21–28°
14d · 2026-07-31 34° 29° 40° 29–40°
13d · 2026-08-01 29° 24° 31° 33° 24–33°
12d · 2026-08-02 30° 25° 34° 36° 25–36°
11d · 2026-08-03 30° 34° 27° 27° 27–34°
10d · 2026-08-04 29° 32° 27° 26° 26–32°
9d · 2026-08-05 29° 27° 34° 32° 27–34°
8d · 2026-08-06 28° 32° 30° 29° 32° 28–32°
7d · 2026-08-07 31° 29° 31° 28° 31° 28–31°
6d · 2026-08-08 30° 28° 30° 26° 28° 30° 26–30°
5d · 2026-08-09 31° 27° 31° 28° 24° 29° 31° 24–31°
4d · 2026-08-10 32° 27° 26° 28° 32° 33° 30° 26–33°
3d · 2026-08-11 29° 31° 26° 26° 33° 30° 31° 26–33°
2d · 2026-08-12 33° 30° 26° 29° 33° 26° 32° 26–33°
1d · 2026-08-13 30° 27° 30° 34° 28° 31° 29° 27–34°
0d · 2026-08-14 29° 29° 31° 31° 31° 28° 32° 28–32°
actual 26°

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 ECMWF IFS analysis (temperature_2m_max). Archive depth varies by city; receipts exist only for dates the archive watched arrive.