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Quebec · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Abitibi, Quebec

Abitibi is a regional county municipality (MRC) in Quebec. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 8 farms reporting maple taps here (taps withheld by Statistics Canada). Around Amos, sap usually runs from March 30 to May 4. Here's the long-run pattern, 35 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 174 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Mar 30
producers' record
Season ends
May 4
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
32.4
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
withheld
by Statistics Canada

Sap-flow outlook at Amos right now

Full Quebec forecast →

Forecast for Amos, QC

Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT

Only marginal days ahead

freeze thaw 0 °C

  1. ThuOct 8
    6° / 9°
    No refreeze forecast
  2. FriOct 9
    1° / 8°
    No refreeze forecast
  3. SatOct 10
    -1° / 9°
    Maybe a light run
  4. SunOct 11
    8° / 20°
    No refreeze forecast
  5. MonOct 12
    10° / 15°
    No refreeze forecast
  6. TueOct 13
    6° / 9°
    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 Amos

Freeze-thaw weather at Amos peaks in the weeks of Mar 23 to May 4, which hold about 69% of a season's sap days. April is the busiest month. Typical dates are anchored to producers' reported season in the region (Houle et al. 2015, 1999–2011): this division's weather signals, moved 6.8 days earlier for the opening and 1.4 for the closing, the average gap to that record. The spread and the year-by-year bars below are the unadjusted weather signal.
Typical season: Mar 30 – May 40246Week of Dec 1: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 5: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 12: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 2: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 9: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 1.3 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 1.7 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.4 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 3.2 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 3.7 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 3.7 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 3.5 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 1.9 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 1.0 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 30
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Amos, 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 Apr 6; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 31 and Apr 9. Earliest Mar 9 (2021), latest Apr 17 (2020).
Closing signal
Median May 5; middle half between Apr 29 and May 11. Earliest Apr 6 (2021), latest May 18 (2018).
Sap days by month
Dec3%Jan1%Feb4%Mar22%Apr46%May25%

35 seasons of sap weather

Abitibi seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Amos was 1999 with 45 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2019 with 21. 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: Apr 8 – May 11, 33 sap days3320242024: Mar 30 – Apr 30, 34 sap days3420232023: Apr 6 – Apr 27, 23 sap days2320222022: Apr 6 – May 8, 33 sap days3320212021: Mar 9 – Apr 6, 35 sap days3520202020: Apr 17 – May 15, 33 sap days3320192019: Apr 14 – May 12, 21 sap days2120182018: Apr 13 – May 18, 28 sap days2820172017: Apr 9 – May 10, 36 sap days3620162016: Apr 8 – May 12, 30 sap days3020152015: Apr 1 – Apr 25, 23 sap days2320142014: Apr 10 – May 8, 22 sap days2220132013: Mar 31 – Apr 25, 29 sap days2920122012: Mar 19 – Apr 23, 34 sap days3420112011: Apr 6 – May 9, 35 sap days3520102010: Mar 15 – Apr 19, 41 sap days4120092009: Apr 3 – May 5, 44 sap days4420082008: Mar 31 – Apr 25, 24 sap days2420072007: Mar 29 – May 3, 31 sap days3120062006: Mar 26 – Apr 30, 31 sap days3120052005: Mar 31 – May 4, 34 sap days3420042004: Apr 10 – May 10, 36 sap days3620032003: Apr 6 – May 9, 27 sap days2720022002: Apr 8 – May 13, 38 sap days3820012001: Mar 30 – Apr 29, 37 sap days3720002000: Mar 31 – May 4, 38 sap days3819991999: Mar 31 – May 1, 45 sap days4519981998: Mar 25 – Apr 28, 29 sap days2919971997: Apr 10 – May 12, 29 sap days2919961996: Apr 15 – May 16, 38 sap days3819951995: Apr 8 – May 9, 30 sap days3019941994: Apr 10 – May 14, 33 sap days3319931993: Mar 31 – May 2, 32 sap days3219921992: Apr 8 – May 11, 29 sap days2919911991: Mar 27 – Apr 28, 38 sap days38
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Amos. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Abitibi 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 8 in Abitibi; in 2016, 3 farms.

Over the five years the farm count changed +167%. 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.

Abitibi maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
20218Ewithheld by Statistics Canada
20163withheld by Statistics Canada
  • E Statistics Canada quality grade: use with caution.
  • "Withheld by Statistics Canada": Statistics Canada suppressed the value as too unreliable to publish (F) or to protect confidentiality (x). 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 Amos, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 296 m (971 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. In Quebec it reproduces the pattern between regions in producers' reported seasons (Houle et al. 2015), and the typical dates are anchored to that record. 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 · 8

  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.Impacts of climate change on the timing of the production season of maple syrup in eastern Canada (PLOS ONE 10(12): e0144844, 2015) · Houle et al.
  5. 5.Sap flow in sugar maple: timing and weather drivers (Frontiers in Agronomy, 2025) · de Lima Santos et al.
  6. 6.2021 Census cartographic boundary files (census divisions, population centres) · Statistics Canada
Show 2 more
  1. 7.Population and dwelling counts, 2021 Census (Tables 98-10-0002-01 and 98-10-0011-01) · Statistics Canada
  2. 8.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

Abitibi sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Abitibi, Quebec?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 30 near Amos and the season winds down around May 4. 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 Mar 9 and as late as Apr 17.
How much maple syrup does Abitibi produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 8 farms reporting maple taps in Abitibi; the tap count was withheld by Statistics Canada.
How many sap days does Abitibi get in a season?
On average 32.4 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Amos, of which about 9.5 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 1999 (45 sap days); the leanest was 2019 (21).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Amos (Daymet 1-km grid), scored with the same freeze-thaw rule as our live forecast. In Quebec they are anchored to producers' reported season in the region (Houle et al. 2015, 1999–2011). 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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