Maple sugaring in Androscoggin County, Maine
- Sap starts
- Mar 3
- typical year
- Season ends
- Apr 8
- about 5 weeks
- Sap days / season
- 44
- 1991–2026 average
- Taps, 2022
- 21,175
- #4 of 16 in ME
Sap-flow outlook at Auburn right now
Full Maine forecast →Forecast for Auburn, ME
Updated Oct 6, 6:54 AM EDT
Only marginal days ahead
freeze thaw 32°F
- WedOct 731° / 60°
3h below · 20h above
Maybe a light run - ThuOct 847° / 68°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - FriOct 942° / 62°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - SatOct 1040° / 60°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - SunOct 1139° / 65°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - MonOct 1249° / 69°No refreeze forecast
Data: National Weather Service. Verdicts use freeze-thaw thresholds from maple field research; your woods may run a little differently.
When the sap runs
The sugaring calendar at Auburn
Year-to-year spread
- Opening signal
- Median Mar 12; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 4 and Mar 16. Earliest Feb 17 (2012), latest Mar 21 (2015).
- Closing signal
- Median Apr 12; middle half between Apr 6 and Apr 17. Earliest Mar 17 (2012), latest Apr 22 (2018).
- Sap days by month
- Dec20%Jan12%Feb16%Mar31%Apr20%May1%
36 seasons of sap weather
Androscoggin County seasons, 1991–2026
Maple production
Androscoggin County in the Census of Agriculture
USDA counts maple operations every five years. In Androscoggin County the 2022 Census found 28 farms making syrup (+65% since 2017), with taps +69% and syrup output +109% over the same five years. That works out to about 0.28 gallons of syrup per tap in 2022 (0.23 in 2017). Among the 385 counties in this atlas, Androscoggin County ranks 91 by taps.
| Census year | Farms | Taps | Gallons of syrup | Gal / tap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 28 | 21,175 | 6,017 | 0.28 |
| 2017 | 17 | 12,564 | 2,875 | 0.23 |
Nearby
Neighboring maple counties
17 mi · Paris, ME
Oxford County
Sap ~Mar 6 – Apr 13 · 92,452 taps
24 mi · Bath, ME
Sagadahoc County
Sap ~Mar 1 – Apr 8 · 226 taps
27 mi · Augusta, ME
Kennebec County
Sap ~Mar 2 – Apr 5 · 10,335 taps
29 mi · Wiscasset, ME
Lincoln County
Sap ~Mar 2 – Apr 8 · 3,100 taps
30 mi · Portland, ME
Cumberland County
Sap ~Feb 20 – Mar 30 · 18,526 taps
40 mi · Farmington, ME
Franklin County
Sap ~Mar 9 – Apr 16 · 18,235 taps
About these numbers
The season dates are estimated from 36 seasons of daily high and low temperatures for the PRISM 4-km grid cell at Auburn (269ft), scored with the same freeze-thaw rule as our live forecast: a sap day is an overnight low under 30.2 °F followed by an afternoon high over 37.4 °F. Each season's closing signal is the last sap day before accumulated warmth reaches a threshold, and the opening signal sits five weeks before that, never earlier than the first real freeze-thaw week. Tested against 117 state-seasons of USDA-reported dates, the rule lands within 5.5 days of the reported close and 6.6 days of the reported opening on average, and the typical dates shown here are scaled to Maine's USDA record (12 years). Production figures are copied from the Census as published. Full method, calibration tables and the downloadable dataset →
Sources · 6
- 1.2022 Census of Agriculture, County Level Data — Maine, Table 37: Maple Syrup, 2022 and 2017 · USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- 2.PRISM daily temperature grids (AN81d, 4 km), accessed 2026-10-05 · PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu
- 3.Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) web services · NOAA Regional Climate Centers
- 4.USDA NASS maple syrup reports — approximate average season opened and closed dates, 2011–2022 · USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (mirrored by the University of Vermont)
- 5.Sap flow in sugar maple: timing and weather drivers (Frontiers in Agronomy, 2025) · de Lima Santos et al.
- 6.GeoNames gazetteer (cities500), CC BY 4.0 · GeoNames
FAQ
Androscoggin County sugaring questions
- When should I tap maple trees in Androscoggin County, Maine?
- In a typical year the sap starts running around March 3 near Auburn and the season winds down around April 8. Have your taps in a day or two before the first forecast string of freezing nights and 40 °F days. In the past 36 seasons the weather signal came as early as Feb 17 and as late as Mar 21.
- How much maple syrup does Androscoggin County produce?
- The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 28 maple operations in Androscoggin County with 21,175 taps producing 6,017 gallons of syrup, ranking 4 of 16 Maine's counties with published tap counts.
- How many sap days does Androscoggin County get in a season?
- On average 44 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Auburn, of which about 14.7 are textbook days with a night in the 20s and a day in the 40s. The best season since 1991 was 2016 (62 sap days); the leanest was 2015 (28).
- Where do these dates come from?
- From 36 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Auburn (PRISM 4-km grid), scored with the same freeze-thaw rule as our live forecast, then calibrated against USDA's reported season dates for Maine. They describe a typical year at one point in the county; your sugarbush, slope and elevation can shift them by days.


