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Quebec · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Acton, Quebec

Acton is a regional county municipality (MRC) in Quebec. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 80 farms reporting maple taps and 359,190 taps here. Around Acton Vale, sap usually runs from March 8 to April 15. Here's the long-run pattern, 35 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 152 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Mar 8
producers' record
Season ends
Apr 15
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
27.9
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
359,190
#30 of 61 in QC

Sap-flow outlook at Acton Vale right now

Full Quebec forecast →

Forecast for Acton Vale, QC

Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT

Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Acton's season usually opens around March 8, which is 152 days away.

No freeze-thaw days in the forecast

freeze thaw 0 °C

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

Freeze-thaw weather at Acton Vale peaks in the weeks of Mar 9 to Apr 13, which hold about 51% of a season's sap days. March 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 8 – Apr 150246Week of Dec 1: 0.9 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 0.9 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 5: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 12: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 2: 0.7 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: 1.2 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 1.3 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 1.8 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 2.0 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.7 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 2.7 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 2.1 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 1.4 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 0.8 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.0 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.0 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 8
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Acton Vale, 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 15; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 12 and Mar 21. Earliest Mar 1 (2000), latest Apr 2 (2015).
Closing signal
Median Apr 16; middle half between Apr 12 and Apr 18. Earliest Mar 28 (2010), latest Apr 28 (2001).
Sap days by month
Dec14%Jan8%Feb13%Mar32%Apr31%May2%

35 seasons of sap weather

Acton seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Acton Vale was 2020 with 46 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2015 with 16. 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 13 – Apr 17, 29 sap days2920242024: Mar 5 – Apr 9, 34 sap days3420232023: Mar 12 – Apr 9, 37 sap days3720222022: Mar 12 – Apr 6, 25 sap days2520212021: Mar 5 – Apr 4, 20 sap days2020202020: Mar 13 – Apr 17, 46 sap days4620192019: Mar 21 – Apr 17, 27 sap days2720182018: Mar 24 – Apr 23, 34 sap days3420172017: Mar 12 – Apr 14, 22 sap days2220162016: Mar 15 – Apr 17, 39 sap days3920152015: Apr 2 – Apr 18, 16 sap days1620142014: Mar 20 – Apr 20, 22 sap days2220132013: Mar 15 – Apr 15, 34 sap days3420122012: Mar 8 – Apr 3, 27 sap days2720112011: Mar 20 – Apr 22, 24 sap days2420102010: Mar 2 – Mar 28, 23 sap days2320092009: Mar 14 – Apr 17, 33 sap days3320082008: Mar 27 – Apr 16, 21 sap days2120072007: Mar 19 – Apr 20, 36 sap days3620062006: Mar 8 – Apr 10, 28 sap days2820052005: Mar 16 – Apr 16, 27 sap days2720042004: Mar 18 – Apr 17, 25 sap days2520032003: Mar 19 – Apr 18, 17 sap days1720022002: Mar 11 – Apr 11, 27 sap days2720012001: Mar 24 – Apr 28, 25 sap days2520002000: Mar 1 – Apr 4, 35 sap days3519991999: Mar 13 – Apr 16, 39 sap days3919981998: Mar 9 – Apr 12, 23 sap days2319971997: Mar 26 – Apr 27, 25 sap days2519961996: Mar 18 – Apr 16, 24 sap days2419951995: Mar 13 – Apr 17, 31 sap days3119941994: Mar 22 – Apr 23, 22 sap days2219931993: Mar 23 – Apr 15, 24 sap days2419921992: Mar 22 – Apr 17, 24 sap days2419911991: Mar 9 – Apr 13, 33 sap days33
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Acton Vale. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Acton 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 80 in Acton, with 359,190 taps; in 2016, 90 farms and 310,940 taps. Among Quebec's 61 census divisions with a published tap count, Acton ranks 30th, and 33rd of the 94 in this atlas.

Over the five years the farm count changed −11% and taps +16%. 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.

Acton maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
202180359,190
201690310,940

A separate, newer source

PPAQ regional fact sheet, 2026

The Producteurs et productrices acéricoles du Québec (PPAQ) publish a fact sheet for each sugaring region, with figures for every MRC. These are from the 2026 Montérégie-Est sheet. They count enterprises registered under the joint marketing plan, by where the sugarbush is; the census above counts 2021 farms by their main location. The two sit side by side here and are never added together.

Enterprises
107
under the joint marketing plan
Taps
595,987
as printed
Annual production
3.0 million lb
estimate, pounds of syrup
Value
$10.1 million
Canadian dollars

Taps by forest ownership

Private forest 100%Public forest 0%

  • Figures in millions are rounded to a tenth, as PPAQ printed them.
  • Annual production is PPAQ's estimate (Groupe AGÉCO's yield estimate applied to the taps), not a measured harvest. Montérégie-Est sheet (PDF, French)

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 Acton Vale, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 91 m (299 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; the PPAQ figures, from its 2026 regional fact sheet, are shown separately. Full method, the Daymet checks and the Quebec validation → Run a sugarhouse here? Put this sap forecast on your own website →

Sources · 9

  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.Fiche région 2026 : Montérégie-Est · Producteurs et productrices acéricoles du Québec
  4. 4.Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4 R1 · ORNL DAAC
  5. 5.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.
  6. 6.Sap flow in sugar maple: timing and weather drivers (Frontiers in Agronomy, 2025) · de Lima Santos et al.
Show 3 more
  1. 7.2021 Census cartographic boundary files (census divisions, population centres) · Statistics Canada
  2. 8.Population and dwelling counts, 2021 Census (Tables 98-10-0002-01 and 98-10-0011-01) · Statistics Canada
  3. 9.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.
  • Québec MRC figures: Producteurs et productrices acéricoles du Québec, Fiches région 2026 (production estimates from Groupe AGÉCO).

FAQ

Acton sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Acton, Quebec?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 8 near Acton Vale and the season winds down around April 15. 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 1 and as late as Apr 2.
How much maple syrup does Acton produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 80 farms reporting 359,190 maple taps in Acton, number 30 of 61 Quebec divisions with a published count. Separately, the PPAQ's 2026 fact sheet for the Montérégie-Est region estimates annual production at 3.0 million lb of syrup from 595,987 taps.
How many sap days does Acton get in a season?
On average 27.9 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Acton Vale, of which about 10.5 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 2020 (46 sap days); the leanest was 2015 (16).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Acton Vale (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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