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Ohio · county maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Defiance County, Ohio

Defiance County had 5 maple operations and 464 taps in the 2022 Census. Around Defiance, sap usually runs from February 22 to March 31. Here's the long-run pattern, 36 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 139 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Feb 22
typical year
Season ends
Mar 31
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
38.2
1991–2026 average
Taps, 2022
464
#44 of 63 in OH

Sap-flow outlook at Defiance right now

Full Ohio forecast →

Forecast for Defiance, OH

Updated Oct 6, 9:30 AM EDT

Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Defiance County's season usually opens around February 22, which is 139 days away.

No freeze-thaw days in the forecast

freeze thaw 32°F

  1. WedOct 7
    51° / 77°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  2. ThuOct 8
    50° / 68°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  3. FriOct 9
    44° / 70°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  4. SatOct 10
    46° / 76°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  5. SunOct 11
    54° / 74°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  6. MonOct 12
    54° / 76°
    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 Defiance

Freeze-thaw weather at Defiance peaks in the weeks of Feb 16 to Mar 30, which hold about 46% of a season's sap days. March is the busiest month.
Typical season: Feb 22 – Mar 310246Week of Dec 1: 1.9 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 2.1 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 1.9 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 1.8 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 1.3 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 5: 1.3 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 12: 1.3 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 1.0 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 1.5 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 2: 1.8 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 9: 1.8 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 2.1 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 2.1 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 2.6 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 2.8 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 3.1 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.8 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 2.1 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 1.7 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 0.1 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 ~Feb 22
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Defiance, 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 Feb 17; the middle half of seasons fell between Feb 7 and Feb 25. Earliest Jan 18 (2017), latest Mar 7 (2014).
Closing signal
Median Mar 21; middle half between Mar 10 and Mar 31. Earliest Feb 18 (2017), latest Apr 6 (2014).
Sap days by month
Dec22%Jan15%Feb20%Mar32%Apr11%May0%

36 seasons of sap weather

Defiance County seasons, 1991–2026

The best sap year at Defiance was 2018 with 56 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2003 with 23. 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: Feb 10 – Mar 3, 36 sap days3620252025: Feb 12 – Mar 18, 40 sap days4020242024: Feb 4 – Mar 3, 40 sap days4020232023: Jan 25 – Feb 27, 44 sap days4420222022: Feb 14 – Mar 14, 47 sap days4720212021: Feb 17 – Mar 22, 41 sap days4120202020: Feb 11 – Mar 18, 50 sap days5020192019: Feb 27 – Apr 2, 40 sap days4020182018: Feb 21 – Mar 27, 56 sap days5620172017: Jan 18 – Feb 18, 32 sap days3220162016: Feb 6 – Mar 2, 40 sap days4020152015: Mar 4 – Apr 5, 32 sap days3220142014: Mar 7 – Apr 6, 25 sap days2520132013: Mar 4 – Apr 4, 40 sap days4020122012: Feb 7 – Mar 12, 40 sap days4020112011: Feb 28 – Apr 3, 25 sap days2520102010: Feb 18 – Mar 10, 24 sap days2420092009: Feb 15 – Mar 22, 38 sap days3820082008: Mar 1 – Apr 3, 38 sap days3820072007: Feb 19 – Mar 21, 31 sap days3120062006: Feb 5 – Mar 8, 43 sap days4320052005: Feb 26 – Mar 27, 33 sap days3320042004: Feb 25 – Mar 25, 33 sap days3320032003: Feb 24 – Mar 31, 23 sap days2320022002: Feb 6 – Mar 12, 48 sap days4820012001: Mar 2 – Apr 5, 39 sap days3920002000: Jan 31 – Mar 6, 39 sap days3919991999: Feb 23 – Mar 28, 50 sap days5019981998: Jan 26 – Feb 26, 38 sap days3819971997: Feb 17 – Mar 20, 43 sap days4319961996: Feb 24 – Mar 30, 40 sap days4019951995: Feb 10 – Mar 11, 38 sap days3819941994: Feb 25 – Apr 1, 35 sap days3519931993: Mar 5 – Apr 4, 29 sap days2919921992: Feb 2 – Mar 2, 45 sap days4519911991: Feb 17 – Mar 17, 41 sap days41
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily temperatures at Defiance. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Defiance County in the Census of Agriculture

USDA counts maple operations every five years. In Defiance County the 2022 Census found 5 farms making syrup (+150% since 2017). That works out to about 0.14 gallons of syrup per tap in 2022. Among the 385 counties in this atlas, Defiance County ranks 319 by taps.

Defiance County maple production, 2017 and 2022 (USDA Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarmsTapsGallons of syrupGal / tap
20225464640.14
20172withheldwithheld—

“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 Defiance (699ft), 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 Ohio's USDA record (8 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 — Ohio, 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

Defiance County sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Defiance County, Ohio?
In a typical year the sap starts running around February 22 near Defiance and the season winds down around March 31. 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 Jan 18 and as late as Mar 7.
How much maple syrup does Defiance County produce?
The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 5 maple operations in Defiance County with 464 taps producing 64 gallons of syrup, ranking 44 of 63 Ohio's counties with published tap counts.
How many sap days does Defiance County get in a season?
On average 38.2 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Defiance, of which about 14.6 are textbook days with a night in the 20s and a day in the 40s. The best season since 1991 was 2018 (56 sap days); the leanest was 2003 (23).
Where do these dates come from?
From 36 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Defiance (PRISM 4-km grid), scored with the same freeze-thaw rule as our live forecast, then calibrated against USDA's reported season dates for Ohio. 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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