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Quebec · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in La Matapédia, Quebec

La Matapédia is a regional county municipality (MRC) in Quebec. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 39 farms reporting maple taps and 261,585 taps here. Around Amqui, sap usually runs from March 29 to May 4. Here's the long-run pattern, 35 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 173 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Mar 29
producers' record
Season ends
May 4
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
27.4
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
261,585
#35 of 61 in QC

Sap-flow outlook at Amqui right now

Full Quebec forecast →

Forecast for Amqui, QC

Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT

1 sap day in the next 6

freeze thaw 0 °C

  1. ThuOct 8
    6° / 11°
    No refreeze forecast
  2. FriOct 9
    5° / 10°
    No refreeze forecast
  3. SatOct 10
    3° / 7°
    No refreeze forecast
  4. SunOct 11
    -4° / 5°
    Classic sap day
  5. MonOct 12
    6° / 11°
    Run tapering
  6. TueOct 13
    5° / 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 Amqui

Freeze-thaw weather at Amqui peaks in the weeks of Mar 23 to Apr 27, which hold about 62% 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 29 – May 40246Week of Dec 1: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 5: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 12: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 2: 0.1 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: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 1.2 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 1.7 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.3 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 2.6 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 3.7 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 2.5 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 1.5 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 0.9 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.2 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 29
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Amqui, 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 5; the middle half of seasons fell between Apr 2 and Apr 9. Earliest Mar 23 (2010), latest Apr 16 (2020).
Closing signal
Median May 5; middle half between May 3 and May 10. Earliest Apr 25 (2017), latest May 20 (2020).
Sap days by month
Dec7%Jan3%Feb4%Mar24%Apr47%May14%

35 seasons of sap weather

La Matapédia seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Amqui was 2024 with 43 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2015 with 18. 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 2 – May 5, 24 sap days2420242024: Apr 1 – May 3, 43 sap days4320232023: Mar 31 – Apr 26, 27 sap days2720222022: Apr 7 – May 9, 32 sap days3220212021: Mar 23 – Apr 25, 30 sap days3020202020: Apr 16 – May 20, 38 sap days3820192019: Apr 8 – May 3, 24 sap days2420182018: Apr 5 – May 8, 26 sap days2620172017: Apr 7 – Apr 25, 22 sap days2220162016: Apr 9 – May 12, 29 sap days2920152015: Apr 4 – May 3, 18 sap days1820142014: Apr 10 – May 13, 25 sap days2520132013: Mar 30 – May 4, 33 sap days3320122012: Mar 28 – May 2, 28 sap days2820112011: Apr 8 – May 12, 28 sap days2820102010: Mar 23 – Apr 27, 23 sap days2320092009: Apr 3 – May 5, 28 sap days2820082008: Apr 3 – Apr 29, 20 sap days2020072007: Apr 4 – May 6, 30 sap days3020062006: Mar 27 – May 1, 28 sap days2820052005: Apr 4 – May 5, 26 sap days2620042004: Apr 8 – May 11, 31 sap days3120032003: Apr 10 – May 6, 21 sap days2120022002: Apr 10 – May 13, 34 sap days3420012001: Apr 3 – May 6, 25 sap days2520002000: Apr 4 – May 4, 31 sap days3119991999: Mar 29 – Apr 30, 27 sap days2719981998: Apr 5 – Apr 27, 19 sap days1919971997: Apr 11 – May 5, 23 sap days2319961996: Apr 5 – May 10, 31 sap days3119951995: Apr 11 – May 10, 24 sap days2419941994: Apr 9 – May 11, 27 sap days2719931993: Mar 31 – May 3, 25 sap days2519921992: Apr 9 – May 12, 29 sap days2919911991: Apr 7 – May 10, 30 sap days30
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Amqui. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

La Matapédia 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 39 in La Matapédia, with 261,585 taps; in 2016, 40 farms and 225,084 taps. Among Quebec's 61 census divisions with a published tap count, La Matapédia ranks 35th, and 39th of the 94 in this atlas.

Over the five years the farm count changed −2% 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.

La Matapédia maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
202139261,585
201640225,084

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
46
under the joint marketing plan
Taps
318,021
as printed
Annual production
1.0 million lb
estimate, pounds of syrup
Value
$3.5 million
Canadian dollars

Taps by forest ownership

Private forest 73%Public forest 27%

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 Amqui, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 161 m (528 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

La Matapédia sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in La Matapédia, Quebec?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 29 near Amqui 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 23 and as late as Apr 16.
How much maple syrup does La Matapédia produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 39 farms reporting 261,585 maple taps in La Matapédia, number 35 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 1.0 million lb of syrup from 318,021 taps.
How many sap days does La Matapédia get in a season?
On average 27.4 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Amqui, of which about 10.1 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 (43 sap days); the leanest was 2015 (18).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Amqui (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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