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Beyond the Forecast

August 5 in Fargo

Weather forecasts run out after about two weeks. For any date further out than that, the honest answer isn't a single number — it's the range Fargo actually delivers on this date, and how often.

On August 5, Fargo, ND typically reaches 82°F, but has run anywhere from 73°F to 91°F in eight years out of ten. About 73% of August 5s see no measurable precipitation.

Daytime high82°F
73°F8 years in 10 land in here91°F
Overnight low59°F
51°F8 years in 10 land in here67°F

The odds on August 5

73%
Dry day
No measurable precipitation
9%
90°F or hotter
Daytime high

Odds computed from the last 30 years (19962025).

Where this comes from: 840 daily observations from FARGO HECTOR INTL AP, covering 19702025. We pool every day within 7 days of August 5 — a single calendar date has only about 55 readings, far too few to place a 10th percentile you'd want to trust.

Why it's not a plain average: A climatology computed straight across 19702025 describes the middle of that period, not today, so as a statement about the present it runs cold. We fit a trend on year and shift each observation to 2025 before taking the range. The probabilities use the last 30 years instead — shifting a temperature along a trend is well defined, shifting “did it rain” is not.

What this is not: Not a forecast. It is what Fargo, ND has actually done on this date, which is the only defensible answer once you're past the two-week horizon where real forecasts stop. Data: NOAA NCEI GHCN-Daily.

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