Maple sugaring in Washington County, Ohio
- Sap starts
- Feb 2
- typical year
- Season ends
- Mar 12
- about 5 weeks
- Sap days / season
- 47.8
- 1991–2026 average
- Taps, 2022
- 292
- #51 of 63 in OH
Sap-flow outlook at Marietta right now
Full Ohio forecast →Forecast for Marietta, OH
Updated Oct 6, 9:50 AM EDT
Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Washington County's season usually opens around February 2, which is 119 days away.
No freeze-thaw days in the forecast
freeze thaw 32°F
- WedOct 744° / 72°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - ThuOct 853° / 76°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - FriOct 947° / 72°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - SatOct 1047° / 76°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - SunOct 1154° / 73°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - MonOct 1256° / 75°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 Marietta
Year-to-year spread
- Opening signal
- Median Jan 28; the middle half of seasons fell between Jan 19 and Feb 3. Earliest Jan 2 (2020), latest Feb 20 (2003).
- Closing signal
- Median Mar 2; middle half between Feb 17 and Mar 8. Earliest Jan 28 (2006), latest Mar 19 (2014).
- Sap days by month
- Dec24%Jan20%Feb24%Mar25%Apr6%May0%
36 seasons of sap weather
Washington County seasons, 1991–2026
Maple production
Washington County in the Census of Agriculture
USDA counts maple operations every five years. In Washington County the 2022 Census found 10 farms making syrup (+400% since 2017). That works out to about 0.19 gallons of syrup per tap in 2022. Among the 385 counties in this atlas, Washington County ranks 334 by taps.
| Census year | Farms | Taps | Gallons of syrup | Gal / tap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 10 | 292 | 56 | 0.19 |
| 2017 | 2 | withheld | withheld | — |
“Withheld” means USDA suppressed the figure to avoid disclosing data for individual operations; the farm count is still published.
Nearby
Neighboring maple counties
12 mi · Parkersburg, WV
Wood County
Sap ~Feb 1 – Mar 10 · 159 taps
26 mi · Harrisville, WV
Ritchie County
Sap ~Feb 6 – Mar 14 · 208 taps
27 mi · McConnelsville, OH
Morgan County
Sap ~Feb 10 – Mar 18 · 740 taps
30 mi · Woodsfield, OH
Monroe County
Sap ~Feb 8 – Mar 17 · 1,970 taps
35 mi · Athens, OH
Athens County
Sap ~Feb 4 – Mar 14 · 4,745 taps
37 mi · West Union, WV
Doddridge County
Sap ~Feb 6 – Mar 15 · 169 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 Marietta (656ft), 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
- 1.2022 Census of Agriculture, County Level Data — Ohio, 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
Washington County sugaring questions
- When should I tap maple trees in Washington County, Ohio?
- In a typical year the sap starts running around February 2 near Marietta and the season winds down around March 12. 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 2 and as late as Feb 20.
- How much maple syrup does Washington County produce?
- The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 10 maple operations in Washington County with 292 taps producing 56 gallons of syrup, ranking 51 of 63 Ohio's counties with published tap counts.
- How many sap days does Washington County get in a season?
- On average 47.8 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Marietta, of which about 13.1 are textbook days with a night in the 20s and a day in the 40s. The best season since 1991 was 2018 (61 sap days); the leanest was 2010 (31).
- Where do these dates come from?
- From 36 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Marietta (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.


