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Maine · county maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Hancock County, Maine

Hancock County had 5 maple operations and 452 taps in the 2022 Census. Around Ellsworth, sap usually runs from March 5 to April 9. Here's the long-run pattern, 36 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 150 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Mar 5
typical year
Season ends
Apr 9
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
43.9
1991–2026 average
Taps, 2022
452
#15 of 16 in ME

Sap-flow outlook at Ellsworth right now

Full Maine forecast →

Forecast for Ellsworth, ME

Updated Oct 6, 6:02 AM EDT

No freeze-thaw days in the forecast

freeze thaw 32°F

  1. WedOct 7
    36° / 56°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  2. ThuOct 8
    50° / 66°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  3. FriOct 9
    44° / 61°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  4. SatOct 10
    42° / 59°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  5. SunOct 11
    41° / 61°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  6. MonOct 12
    50° / 67°
    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 Ellsworth

Freeze-thaw weather at Ellsworth peaks in the weeks of Mar 2 to Apr 6, which hold about 41% of a season's sap days. March is the busiest month.
Typical season: Mar 5 – Apr 90246Week of Dec 1: 2.4 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 2.4 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 2.0 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 1.7 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 1.6 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 5: 1.3 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 12: 1.2 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 2: 1.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 9: 1.7 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 2.1 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 1.9 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 2.2 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 3.0 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 3.6 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 3.3 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 3.2 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 1.8 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 1.4 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 0.0 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.0 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.0 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 5
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Ellsworth, 1991–2026. A sap day is an overnight low under 30.2 °F followed by an afternoon high over 37.4 °F. The shaded band is the typical season.

Year-to-year spread

Opening signal
Median Mar 14; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 7 and Mar 17. Earliest Feb 23 (2010), latest Mar 25 (2003).
Closing signal
Median Apr 13; middle half between Apr 7 and Apr 20. Earliest Mar 28 (2010), latest Apr 26 (1997).
Sap days by month
Dec21%Jan13%Feb16%Mar29%Apr21%May0%

36 seasons of sap weather

Hancock County seasons, 1991–2026

The best sap year at Ellsworth was 2007 with 65 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 1996 with 30. Seasons that start early tend to end early too: the trees run on the swing between freezing nights and mild days, and heat ends it.
JanFebMarAprMaysap days20262026: Mar 11 – Apr 12, 37 sap days3720252025: Mar 16 – Apr 18, 37 sap days3720242024: Mar 9 – Apr 11, 45 sap days4520232023: Mar 10 – Apr 10, 56 sap days5620222022: Mar 5 – Apr 7, 43 sap days4320212021: Mar 5 – Apr 5, 31 sap days3120202020: Mar 10 – Apr 13, 54 sap days5420192019: Mar 17 – Apr 18, 37 sap days3720182018: Mar 18 – Apr 22, 53 sap days5320172017: Mar 8 – Apr 4, 37 sap days3720162016: Mar 5 – Apr 8, 54 sap days5420152015: Mar 22 – Apr 16, 31 sap days3120142014: Mar 18 – Apr 20, 35 sap days3520132013: Mar 13 – Apr 13, 57 sap days5720122012: Feb 27 – Apr 3, 56 sap days5620112011: Mar 17 – Apr 16, 42 sap days4220102010: Feb 23 – Mar 28, 41 sap days4120092009: Mar 16 – Apr 20, 43 sap days4320082008: Mar 17 – Apr 17, 42 sap days4220072007: Mar 19 – Apr 22, 65 sap days6520062006: Mar 4 – Apr 7, 43 sap days4320052005: Mar 14 – Apr 17, 44 sap days4420042004: Mar 20 – Apr 22, 57 sap days5720032003: Mar 25 – Apr 26, 41 sap days4120022002: Mar 10 – Apr 11, 55 sap days5520012001: Mar 21 – Apr 21, 37 sap days3720002000: Mar 1 – Apr 2, 46 sap days4619991999: Mar 5 – Apr 6, 51 sap days5119981998: Mar 3 – Apr 4, 30 sap days3019971997: Mar 22 – Apr 26, 43 sap days4319961996: Mar 17 – Apr 20, 30 sap days3019951995: Mar 17 – Apr 12, 40 sap days4019941994: Mar 12 – Apr 12, 41 sap days4119931993: Mar 16 – Apr 19, 34 sap days3419921992: Mar 20 – Apr 20, 39 sap days3919911991: Mar 7 – Apr 4, 55 sap days55
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily temperatures at Ellsworth. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Hancock County in the Census of Agriculture

USDA counts maple operations every five years. In Hancock County the 2022 Census found 5 farms making syrup (-69% since 2017). That works out to about 0.20 gallons of syrup per tap in 2022. Among the 385 counties in this atlas, Hancock County ranks 322 by taps.

Hancock County maple production, 2017 and 2022 (USDA Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarmsTapsGallons of syrupGal / tap
20225452890.20
201716withheldwithheld—

“Withheld” means USDA suppressed the figure to avoid disclosing data for individual operations; the farm count is still published.

Nearby

Neighboring maple counties

Distances are between reference towns; typical dates are each county's own estimate.

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 Ellsworth (131ft), 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. 1.2022 Census of Agriculture, County Level Data — Maine, Table 37: Maple Syrup, 2022 and 2017 · USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
  2. 2.PRISM daily temperature grids (AN81d, 4 km), accessed 2026-10-05 · PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu
  3. 3.Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) web services · NOAA Regional Climate Centers
  4. 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. 5.Sap flow in sugar maple: timing and weather drivers (Frontiers in Agronomy, 2025) · de Lima Santos et al.
  6. 6.GeoNames gazetteer (cities500), CC BY 4.0 · GeoNames

FAQ

Hancock County sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Hancock County, Maine?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 5 near Ellsworth and the season winds down around April 9. 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 23 and as late as Mar 25.
How much maple syrup does Hancock County produce?
The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 5 maple operations in Hancock County with 452 taps producing 89 gallons of syrup, ranking 15 of 16 Maine's counties with published tap counts.
How many sap days does Hancock County get in a season?
On average 43.9 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Ellsworth, of which about 17.3 are textbook days with a night in the 20s and a day in the 40s. The best season since 1991 was 2007 (65 sap days); the leanest was 1996 (30).
Where do these dates come from?
From 36 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Ellsworth (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.

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