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Quebec · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Gatineau, Quebec

Gatineau is an equivalent territory in Quebec: a city or urban agglomeration outside any MRC that counts as its own census division. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 9 farms reporting maple taps here (taps withheld by Statistics Canada). Around Gatineau, 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
28.6
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
withheld
by Statistics Canada

Sap-flow outlook at Gatineau right now

Full Quebec forecast →

Forecast for Gatineau, QC

Updated Oct 7, 11:00 AM EDT

Only marginal days ahead

freeze thaw 0 °C

  1. ThuOct 8
    8° / 16°
    No refreeze forecast
  2. FriOct 9
    6° / 12°
    No refreeze forecast
  3. SatOct 10
    -1° / 12°
    Maybe a light run
  4. SunOct 11
    8° / 23°
    No refreeze forecast
  5. MonOct 12
    11° / 18°
    No refreeze forecast
  6. TueOct 13
    10° / 14°
    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 Gatineau

Freeze-thaw weather at Gatineau peaks in the weeks of Mar 9 to Apr 13, which hold about 52% 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: 1.0 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 0.9 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 0.6 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: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 0.4 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: 1.0 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 1.4 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 2.0 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 2.3 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.8 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 3.0 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 2.7 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 1.9 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 1.6 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 1.1 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: 0.1 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 Gatineau, 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 11 and Mar 22. Earliest Mar 2 (2010), latest Apr 2 (2015).
Closing signal
Median Apr 16; middle half between Apr 11 and Apr 21. Earliest Mar 18 (2012), latest Apr 26 (1996).
Sap days by month
Dec13%Jan7%Feb12%Mar34%Apr32%May3%

35 seasons of sap weather

Gatineau seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Gatineau was 2020 with 49 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2015 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 17 – Apr 21, 29 sap days2920242024: Mar 2 – Apr 3, 40 sap days4020232023: Mar 12 – Apr 10, 37 sap days3720222022: Mar 10 – Apr 11, 31 sap days3120212021: Mar 5 – Apr 6, 26 sap days2620202020: Mar 10 – Apr 13, 49 sap days4920192019: Mar 22 – Apr 17, 24 sap days2420182018: Mar 25 – Apr 23, 36 sap days3620172017: Mar 11 – Apr 3, 22 sap days2220162016: Mar 17 – Apr 21, 35 sap days3520152015: Apr 2 – Apr 16, 13 sap days1320142014: Mar 22 – Apr 20, 20 sap days2020132013: Mar 18 – Apr 22, 31 sap days3120122012: Mar 8 – Mar 18, 27 sap days2720112011: Mar 18 – Apr 22, 21 sap days2120102010: Mar 2 – Mar 30, 24 sap days2420092009: Mar 14 – Apr 14, 31 sap days3120082008: Mar 26 – Apr 16, 17 sap days1720072007: Mar 15 – Apr 11, 31 sap days3120062006: Mar 9 – Apr 11, 27 sap days2720052005: Mar 14 – Apr 16, 30 sap days3020042004: Mar 16 – Apr 17, 32 sap days3220032003: Mar 22 – Apr 25, 22 sap days2220022002: Mar 13 – Apr 11, 37 sap days3720012001: Mar 21 – Apr 25, 29 sap days2920002000: Mar 4 – Apr 8, 31 sap days3119991999: Mar 14 – Apr 15, 37 sap days3719981998: Mar 6 – Apr 8, 22 sap days2219971997: Mar 25 – Apr 20, 22 sap days2219961996: Mar 23 – Apr 26, 29 sap days2919951995: Mar 13 – Apr 17, 35 sap days3519941994: Mar 21 – Apr 23, 26 sap days2619931993: Mar 21 – Apr 24, 25 sap days2519921992: Mar 26 – Apr 19, 25 sap days2519911991: Mar 11 – Apr 14, 28 sap days28
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Gatineau. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Gatineau 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 Gatineau; in 2016, 6 farms and 4,170 taps.

Over the five years the farm count changed +50%. 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.

Gatineau maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
20219withheld by Statistics Canada
201664,170
  • "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 Gatineau, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 53 m (174 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

Gatineau sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Gatineau, Quebec?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 8 near Gatineau 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 2 and as late as Apr 2.
How much maple syrup does Gatineau produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 9 farms reporting maple taps in Gatineau; the tap count was withheld by Statistics Canada.
How many sap days does Gatineau get in a season?
On average 28.6 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Gatineau, of which about 10.6 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 (49 sap days); the leanest was 2015 (13).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Gatineau (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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