Maple sugaring in Leeds and Grenville, Ontario
- Sap starts
- Mar 11
- weather estimate
- Season ends
- Apr 11
- about 4 weeks
- Sap days / season
- 32.9
- 1991–2025 average
- Taps, 2021
- 38,179
- #17 of 29 in ON
Sap-flow outlook at Brockville right now
Full Ontario forecast →Forecast for Brockville, ON
Updated Oct 7, 11:00 AM EDT
Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Leeds and Grenville's season usually opens around March 11, which is 155 days away.
No freeze-thaw days in the forecast
freeze thaw 0 °C
- ThuOct 88° / 17°No refreeze forecast
- FriOct 98° / 15°No refreeze forecast
- SatOct 101° / 16°No refreeze forecast
- SunOct 1110° / 23°No refreeze forecast
- MonOct 1212° / 18°No refreeze forecast
- TueOct 1310° / 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 Brockville
Year-to-year spread
- Opening signal
- Median Mar 11; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 4 and Mar 17. Earliest Feb 15 (2012), latest Mar 21 (2018).
- Closing signal
- Median Apr 11; middle half between Apr 7 and Apr 16. Earliest Mar 12 (2012), latest Apr 23 (2018).
- Sap days by month
- Dec17%Jan11%Feb15%Mar33%Apr23%May0%
35 seasons of sap weather
Leeds and Grenville seasons, 1991–2025
Maple production
Leeds and Grenville 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 77 in Leeds and Grenville, with 38,179 taps; in 2016, 112 farms and 49,964 taps. Among Ontario's 29 census divisions with a published tap count, Leeds and Grenville ranks 17th, and 81st of the 94 in this atlas.
Over the five years the farm count changed −31% and taps −24%. 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.
| Census year | Farms reporting taps | Taps |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 77 | 38,179E |
| 2016 | 112 | 49,964 |
- E Statistics Canada quality grade: use with caution.
Nearby
Neighboring maple divisions
75 km · Kingston
Frontenac
Sap ~Mar 10 – Apr 11 · 22,101 taps
82 km · Mississippi Mills
Lanark
Sap ~Mar 15 – Apr 16 · 208,832 taps
89 km · Cornwall
Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry
Sap ~Mar 12 – Apr 12 · 57,897 taps
91 km · Ottawa
Ottawa
Sap ~Mar 15 – Apr 16 · 67 farms
107 km · Napanee
Lennox and Addington
Sap ~Mar 10 – Apr 12 · 42 farms
111 km · Clarence-Rockland
Prescott and Russell
Sap ~Mar 17 – Apr 16 · 45,243 taps
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 Brockville, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 86 m (282 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.Maple taps, Census of Agriculture, 2021 (Table 32-10-0362-01) · Statistics Canada
- 2.Maple taps, Census of Agriculture, 2011 and 2016 (Table 32-10-0423-01) · Statistics Canada
- 3.Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4 R1 · ORNL DAAC
- 4.Sap flow in sugar maple: timing and weather drivers (Frontiers in Agronomy, 2025) · de Lima Santos et al.
- 5.2021 Census cartographic boundary files (census divisions, population centres) · Statistics Canada
- 6.Population and dwelling counts, 2021 Census (Tables 98-10-0002-01 and 98-10-0011-01) · Statistics Canada
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- 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
Leeds and Grenville sugaring questions
- When should I tap maple trees in Leeds and Grenville, Ontario?
- In a typical year the sap starts running around March 11 near Brockville and the season winds down around April 11. 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 15 and as late as Mar 21.
- How much maple syrup does Leeds and Grenville produce?
- Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 77 farms reporting 38,179 maple taps in Leeds and Grenville, number 17 of 29 Ontario divisions with a published count.
- How many sap days does Leeds and Grenville get in a season?
- On average 32.9 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Brockville, of which about 13 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 2012 (45 sap days); the leanest was 2010 (22).
- Where do these dates come from?
- From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Brockville (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.


