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Ontario · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Sudbury, Ontario

Sudbury is a district in Ontario. Ontario's census divisions are its counties, districts and regional municipalities. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 9 farms reporting maple taps here (taps withheld by Statistics Canada). Around Espanola, sap usually runs from March 26 to April 25. Here's the long-run pattern, 35 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 170 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Mar 26
weather estimate
Season ends
Apr 25
about 4 weeks
Sap days / season
26.5
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
withheld
by Statistics Canada

Sap-flow outlook at Espanola right now

Full Ontario forecast →

Forecast for Espanola, ON

Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT

Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Sudbury's season usually opens around March 26, which is 170 days away.

No freeze-thaw days in the forecast

freeze thaw 0 °C

  1. ThuOct 8
    6° / 13°
    No refreeze forecast
  2. FriOct 9
    8° / 14°
    No refreeze forecast
  3. SatOct 10
    3° / 17°
    No refreeze forecast
  4. SunOct 11
    11° / 21°
    No refreeze forecast
  5. MonOct 12
    12° / 17°
    No refreeze forecast
  6. TueOct 13
    10° / 12°
    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 Espanola

Freeze-thaw weather at Espanola peaks in the weeks of Mar 16 to Apr 20, which hold about 58% 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 26 – Apr 250246Week of Dec 1: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 0.9 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 5: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 12: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 2: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 9: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 1.5 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 1.9 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.6 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 3.0 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 2.1 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 1.5 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.0 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 26
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Espanola, 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 26; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 21 and Mar 29. Earliest Feb 28 (2010), latest Apr 10 (2019).
Closing signal
Median Apr 25; middle half between Apr 16 and Apr 29. Earliest Mar 26 (2012), latest May 7 (1992).
Sap days by month
Dec12%Jan4%Feb7%Mar31%Apr41%May5%

35 seasons of sap weather

Sudbury seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Espanola was 2020 with 38 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2019 with 13. 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 27 – May 1, 20 sap days2020242024: Mar 8 – Apr 8, 26 sap days2620232023: Mar 25 – Apr 27, 27 sap days2720222022: Mar 28 – Apr 29, 25 sap days2520212021: Mar 8 – Apr 4, 26 sap days2620202020: Mar 29 – Apr 26, 38 sap days3820192019: Apr 10 – Apr 29, 13 sap days1320182018: Apr 3 – Apr 29, 24 sap days2420172017: Mar 18 – Apr 18, 22 sap days2220162016: Mar 26 – Apr 29, 27 sap days2720152015: Mar 27 – Apr 25, 17 sap days1720142014: Apr 3 – Apr 27, 21 sap days2120132013: Mar 28 – Apr 26, 25 sap days2520122012: Mar 7 – Mar 26, 33 sap days3320112011: Mar 30 – Apr 22, 27 sap days2720102010: Feb 28 – Mar 31, 31 sap days3120092009: Mar 25 – Apr 19, 27 sap days2720082008: Mar 31 – Apr 16, 20 sap days2020072007: Mar 23 – Apr 15, 21 sap days2120062006: Mar 23 – Apr 10, 23 sap days2320052005: Mar 20 – Apr 15, 29 sap days2920042004: Mar 23 – Apr 25, 29 sap days2920032003: Mar 28 – Apr 30, 27 sap days2720022002: Mar 27 – Apr 27, 31 sap days3120012001: Mar 24 – Apr 28, 24 sap days2420002000: Mar 15 – Apr 18, 31 sap days3119991999: Mar 14 – Apr 15, 27 sap days2719981998: Mar 12 – Apr 12, 27 sap days2719971997: Mar 30 – May 2, 25 sap days2519961996: Apr 6 – May 6, 28 sap days2819951995: Mar 25 – Apr 24, 36 sap days3619941994: Mar 28 – May 2, 35 sap days3519931993: Mar 26 – Apr 27, 25 sap days2519921992: Apr 3 – May 7, 30 sap days3019911991: Mar 21 – Apr 20, 31 sap days31
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Espanola. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Sudbury 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 9 in Sudbury; in 2016, 10 farms and 2,176 taps.

Over the five years the farm count changed −10%. 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.

Sudbury maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
20219withheld by Statistics Canada
2016102,176
  • "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 Espanola, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 203 m (666 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

Sudbury sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Sudbury, Ontario?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 26 near Espanola and the season winds down around April 25. 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 28 and as late as Apr 10.
How much maple syrup does Sudbury produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 9 farms reporting maple taps in Sudbury; the tap count was withheld by Statistics Canada.
How many sap days does Sudbury get in a season?
On average 26.5 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Espanola, of which about 11.7 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 (38 sap days); the leanest was 2019 (13).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Espanola (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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