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Quebec · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Avignon, Quebec

Avignon is a regional county municipality (MRC) in Quebec. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 12 farms reporting maple taps and 198,253 taps here. Around Carleton-sur-Mer, sap usually runs from March 27 to May 1. Here's the long-run pattern, 35 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 171 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Mar 27
producers' record
Season ends
May 1
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
27.6
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
198,253
#40 of 61 in QC

Sap-flow outlook at Carleton-sur-Mer right now

Full Quebec forecast →

Forecast for Carleton-sur-Mer, QC

Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT

Only marginal days ahead

freeze thaw 0 °C

  1. ThuOct 8
    7° / 15°
    No refreeze forecast
  2. FriOct 9
    8° / 14°
    No refreeze forecast
  3. SatOct 10
    3° / 9°
    No refreeze forecast
  4. SunOct 11
    -1° / 8°
    Maybe a light run
  5. MonOct 12
    7° / 12°
    No refreeze forecast
  6. TueOct 13
    4° / 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 Carleton-sur-Mer

Freeze-thaw weather at Carleton-sur-Mer peaks in the weeks of Mar 23 to Apr 27, which hold about 59% 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 27 – May 10246Week of Dec 1: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 5: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 12: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 0.2 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: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 0.9 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 1.3 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 1.8 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.4 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 2.7 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 3.1 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 3.2 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 2.6 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 2.3 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 1.0 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.1 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 27
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Carleton-sur-Mer, 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 3; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 31 and Apr 5. Earliest Mar 15 (2010), latest Apr 12 (2020).
Closing signal
Median May 2; middle half between Apr 26 and May 6. Earliest Apr 9 (2023), latest May 13 (2014).
Sap days by month
Dec11%Jan4%Feb5%Mar27%Apr44%May9%

35 seasons of sap weather

Avignon seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Carleton-sur-Mer was 2024 with 39 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2018 with 15. 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 31 – May 2, 20 sap days2020242024: Mar 28 – Apr 28, 39 sap days3920232023: Mar 31 – Apr 9, 20 sap days2020222022: Apr 5 – May 9, 34 sap days3420212021: Mar 20 – Apr 15, 19 sap days1920202020: Apr 12 – May 10, 36 sap days3620192019: Apr 5 – May 2, 20 sap days2020182018: Apr 4 – May 8, 15 sap days1520172017: Apr 3 – Apr 25, 23 sap days2320162016: Apr 6 – May 2, 33 sap days3320152015: Apr 5 – May 3, 21 sap days2120142014: Apr 9 – May 13, 32 sap days3220132013: Mar 30 – May 4, 35 sap days3520122012: Mar 21 – Apr 20, 35 sap days3520112011: Apr 3 – May 2, 21 sap days2120102010: Mar 15 – Apr 17, 25 sap days2520092009: Mar 30 – May 3, 32 sap days3220082008: Apr 3 – Apr 29, 23 sap days2320072007: Apr 2 – Apr 27, 35 sap days3520062006: Mar 26 – Apr 23, 28 sap days2820052005: Mar 30 – Apr 23, 33 sap days3320042004: Mar 31 – Apr 30, 30 sap days3020032003: Apr 5 – May 6, 17 sap days1720022002: Apr 6 – May 9, 35 sap days3520012001: Apr 2 – May 6, 26 sap days2620002000: Mar 31 – May 5, 34 sap days3419991999: Mar 25 – Apr 12, 23 sap days2319981998: Apr 9 – Apr 23, 16 sap days1619971997: Apr 7 – May 6, 23 sap days2319961996: Mar 31 – Apr 30, 31 sap days3119951995: Apr 8 – May 3, 28 sap days2819941994: Apr 4 – May 8, 30 sap days3019931993: Apr 1 – May 3, 23 sap days2319921992: Apr 8 – May 12, 37 sap days3719911991: Apr 3 – May 6, 33 sap days33
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Carleton-sur-Mer. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Avignon 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 12 in Avignon, with 198,253 taps; in 2016, 18 farms and 197,186 taps. Among Quebec's 61 census divisions with a published tap count, Avignon ranks 40th, and 47th of the 94 in this atlas.

Over the five years the farm count changed −33% and taps +1%. 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.

Avignon maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
202112198,253
201618197,186

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 Bas-Saint-Laurent – Gaspésie 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
18
under the joint marketing plan
Taps
285,193
as printed
Annual production
955,397 lb
estimate, pounds of syrup
Value
$3.2 million
Canadian dollars

Taps by forest ownership

Private forest 32%Public forest 68%

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 Carleton-sur-Mer, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 6 m (20 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 : Bas-Saint-Laurent – Gaspésie · 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

Avignon sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Avignon, Quebec?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 27 near Carleton-sur-Mer and the season winds down around May 1. 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 15 and as late as Apr 12.
How much maple syrup does Avignon produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 12 farms reporting 198,253 maple taps in Avignon, number 40 of 61 Quebec divisions with a published count. Separately, the PPAQ's 2026 fact sheet for the Bas-Saint-Laurent – Gaspésie region estimates annual production at 955,397 lb of syrup from 285,193 taps.
How many sap days does Avignon get in a season?
On average 27.6 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Carleton-sur-Mer, of which about 11.5 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 2024 (39 sap days); the leanest was 2018 (15).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Carleton-sur-Mer (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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