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Ontario · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Dufferin, Ontario

Dufferin is a county in Ontario. Ontario's census divisions are its counties, districts and regional municipalities. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 30 farms reporting maple taps here (taps withheld by Statistics Canada). Around Orangeville, sap usually runs from March 16 to April 17. Here's the long-run pattern, 35 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 160 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Mar 16
weather estimate
Season ends
Apr 17
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
32
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
withheld
by Statistics Canada

Sap-flow outlook at Orangeville right now

Full Ontario forecast →

Forecast for Orangeville, ON

Updated Oct 7, 11:00 AM EDT

Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Dufferin's season usually opens around March 16, which is 160 days away.

No freeze-thaw days in the forecast

freeze thaw 0 °C

  1. ThuOct 8
    8° / 16°
    No refreeze forecast
  2. FriOct 9
    5° / 17°
    No refreeze forecast
  3. SatOct 10
    3° / 21°
    No refreeze forecast
  4. SunOct 11
    16° / 26°
    No refreeze forecast
  5. MonOct 12
    12° / 18°
    No refreeze forecast
  6. TueOct 13
    11° / 15°
    No refreeze forecast

Data: Environment and Climate Change Canada. Verdicts use freeze-thaw thresholds from maple field research; your woods may run a little differently.

When the sap runs

The sugaring calendar at Orangeville

Freeze-thaw weather at Orangeville peaks in the weeks of Mar 16 to Apr 13, which hold about 44% of a season's sap days. April is the busiest month. Typical dates are a weather estimate (no official season record for this province): the median of this division's own weather signals.
Typical season: Mar 16 – Apr 170246Week of Dec 1: 1.0 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 0.8 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 0.9 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 0.8 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 5: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 12: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 2: 0.8 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 9: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 1.4 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 1.2 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 1.9 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 2.5 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 3.3 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 3.0 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 2.3 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 1.8 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 1.3 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.0 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 16
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Orangeville, 1991–2025 (Daymet temperatures). A sap day is an overnight low under −1 °C (30.2 °F) followed by an afternoon high over +3 °C (37.4 °F). The shaded band is the typical season.

Year-to-year spread

Opening signal
Median Mar 16; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 10 and Mar 22. Earliest Feb 16 (2012), latest Mar 28 (1996).
Closing signal
Median Apr 17; middle half between Apr 10 and Apr 24. Earliest Mar 15 (2012), latest Apr 30 (2018).
Sap days by month
Dec13%Jan8%Feb13%Mar30%Apr32%May4%

35 seasons of sap weather

Dufferin seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Orangeville was 2020 with 51 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 1992 with 19. 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 days20252025: Mar 17 – Apr 17, 31 sap days3120242024: Mar 3 – Apr 2, 32 sap days3220232023: Mar 11 – Apr 10, 38 sap days3820222022: Mar 19 – Apr 20, 44 sap days4420212021: Mar 4 – Apr 4, 28 sap days2820202020: Mar 22 – Apr 26, 51 sap days5120192019: Mar 22 – Apr 25, 31 sap days3120182018: Mar 28 – Apr 30, 35 sap days3520172017: Mar 6 – Apr 8, 30 sap days3020162016: Mar 14 – Apr 16, 47 sap days4720152015: Mar 24 – Apr 25, 27 sap days2720142014: Mar 27 – Apr 24, 24 sap days2420132013: Mar 21 – Apr 25, 23 sap days2320122012: Feb 16 – Mar 15, 48 sap days4820112011: Mar 23 – Apr 24, 34 sap days3420102010: Mar 6 – Mar 31, 27 sap days2720092009: Mar 17 – Apr 17, 41 sap days4120082008: Mar 16 – Apr 16, 23 sap days2320072007: Mar 17 – Apr 19, 32 sap days3220062006: Mar 10 – Apr 10, 26 sap days2620052005: Mar 15 – Apr 16, 34 sap days3420042004: Mar 15 – Apr 16, 25 sap days2520032003: Mar 16 – Apr 17, 27 sap days2720022002: Mar 11 – Apr 10, 37 sap days3720012001: Mar 19 – Apr 20, 31 sap days3120002000: Feb 20 – Mar 25, 30 sap days3019991999: Mar 10 – Apr 13, 40 sap days4019981998: Mar 2 – Apr 6, 25 sap days2519971997: Mar 22 – Apr 21, 28 sap days2819961996: Mar 28 – Apr 29, 31 sap days3119951995: Mar 16 – Apr 18, 37 sap days3719941994: Mar 20 – Apr 23, 28 sap days2819931993: Mar 20 – Apr 24, 24 sap days2419921992: Mar 24 – Apr 16, 19 sap days1919911991: Mar 5 – Apr 4, 31 sap days31
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Orangeville. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Dufferin in the Census of Agriculture

Statistics Canada counts the farms that report maple taps in its Census of Agriculture every five years. In 2021 it counted 30 in Dufferin; in 2016, 32 farms and 6,321 taps.

Over the five years the farm count changed −6%. Statistics Canada cautions that 2021 and 2016 are not strictly comparable: the census-farm definition changed in 2021, and farms were assigned to their main location more strictly.

Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division, so the Canadian pages show farms and taps, not gallons or litres.

Dufferin maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
202130withheld by Statistics Canada
2016326,321
  • "Withheld by Statistics Canada": Statistics Canada suppressed the value as too unreliable to publish (F). The farm count is still published.

Nearby

Neighboring maple divisions

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

About these numbers

The season dates are estimated from 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures for the Daymet 1-km grid cell at Orangeville, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 439 m (1,440 ft). Each day is scored with the same freeze-thaw rule as our live forecast: a sap day is an overnight low under −1 °C (30.2 °F) followed by an afternoon high over +3 °C (37.4 °F). A season's closing signal is the last sap day before accumulated warmth reaches a threshold, and the opening signal sits 35 days before that, never earlier than the first real freeze-thaw week. The rule was calibrated on 117 state-seasons of USDA-reported dates in the US and is applied here unchanged. Ontario has no official season record, so the typical dates are a weather estimate. Production figures are copied from Statistics Canada as published. Full method, the Daymet checks and the Quebec validation → Run a sugarhouse here? Put this sap forecast on your own website →

Sources · 7

  1. 1.Maple taps, Census of Agriculture, 2021 (Table 32-10-0362-01) · Statistics Canada
  2. 2.Maple taps, Census of Agriculture, 2011 and 2016 (Table 32-10-0423-01) · Statistics Canada
  3. 3.Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4 R1 · ORNL DAAC
  4. 4.Sap flow in sugar maple: timing and weather drivers (Frontiers in Agronomy, 2025) · de Lima Santos et al.
  5. 5.2021 Census cartographic boundary files (census divisions, population centres) · Statistics Canada
  6. 6.Population and dwelling counts, 2021 Census (Tables 98-10-0002-01 and 98-10-0011-01) · Statistics Canada
Show 1 more
  1. 7.GeoNames geographical database (CA) · GeoNames

Licences and attribution

  • Adapted from Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture 2021 and 2016 (Tables 32-10-0362-01 and 32-10-0423-01), 2021 Census population and dwelling counts (Tables 98-10-0002-01 and 98-10-0011-01) and 2021 Census cartographic boundary files. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
  • Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
  • Thornton, M.M., R. Shrestha, Y. Wei, P.E. Thornton, S-C. Kao, and B.E. Wilson. 2022. Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4 R1. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2129
  • Place coordinates: GeoNames (geonames.org), CC BY 4.0.

FAQ

Dufferin sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Dufferin, Ontario?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 16 near Orangeville and the season winds down around April 17. Have your taps in a day or two before the first forecast string of nights below −1 °C and days above +3 °C. In the past 35 seasons the weather signal came as early as Feb 16 and as late as Mar 28.
How much maple syrup does Dufferin produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 30 farms reporting maple taps in Dufferin; the tap count was withheld by Statistics Canada.
How many sap days does Dufferin get in a season?
On average 32 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Orangeville, of which about 13.9 are textbook days with a night between about −7 and −2 °C and a day between 4 and 9 °C. The best season since 1991 was 2020 (51 sap days); the leanest was 1992 (19).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Orangeville (Daymet 1-km grid), scored with the same freeze-thaw rule as our live forecast. Ontario has no official season record, so they are a weather estimate. They describe a typical year at one point in the division; your sugarbush, slope and elevation can shift them by days.

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