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Quebec · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Lac-Saint-Jean-Est, Quebec

Lac-Saint-Jean-Est is a regional county municipality (MRC) in Quebec. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 10 farms reporting maple taps here (taps withheld by Statistics Canada). Around Alma, sap usually runs from March 25 to May 1. Here's the long-run pattern, 35 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 169 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Mar 25
producers' record
Season ends
May 1
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
28.9
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
withheld
by Statistics Canada

Sap-flow outlook at Alma right now

Full Quebec forecast →

Forecast for Alma, QC

Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT

Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Lac-Saint-Jean-Est's season usually opens around March 25, which is 169 days away.

No freeze-thaw days in the forecast

freeze thaw 0 °C

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

Freeze-thaw weather at Alma peaks in the weeks of Mar 23 to Apr 27, which hold about 61% 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 25 – May 10246Week of Dec 1: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 5: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 12: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 2: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 9: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 0.7 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: 2.5 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 3.0 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 3.2 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 3.6 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 3.0 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 2.3 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 1.7 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 1.0 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.2 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 25
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Alma, 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 1; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 29 and Apr 5. Earliest Mar 17 (2021), latest Apr 15 (2020).
Closing signal
Median May 2; middle half between Apr 27 and May 9. Earliest Apr 15 (2021), latest May 20 (2020).
Sap days by month
Dec6%Jan3%Feb5%Mar25%Apr47%May14%

35 seasons of sap weather

Lac-Saint-Jean-Est seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Alma was 2024 with 40 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: Apr 1 – May 5, 29 sap days2920242024: Mar 25 – Apr 28, 40 sap days4020232023: Mar 27 – Apr 28, 24 sap days2420222022: Apr 5 – May 9, 34 sap days3420212021: Mar 17 – Apr 15, 24 sap days2420202020: Apr 15 – May 20, 34 sap days3420192019: Apr 8 – May 13, 26 sap days2620182018: Apr 3 – May 7, 33 sap days3320172017: Apr 4 – May 4, 25 sap days2520162016: Apr 9 – May 9, 29 sap days2920152015: Mar 29 – Apr 20, 16 sap days1620142014: Apr 5 – May 9, 23 sap days2320132013: Mar 27 – Apr 26, 30 sap days3020122012: Mar 21 – Apr 23, 33 sap days3320112011: Apr 4 – May 1, 26 sap days2620102010: Mar 19 – Apr 21, 33 sap days3320092009: Mar 29 – May 2, 35 sap days3520082008: Apr 1 – Apr 26, 18 sap days1820072007: Mar 30 – Apr 26, 29 sap days2920062006: Mar 20 – Apr 22, 28 sap days2820052005: Mar 30 – Apr 23, 34 sap days3420042004: Apr 10 – May 11, 32 sap days3220032003: Apr 3 – May 3, 19 sap days1920022002: Apr 4 – May 4, 30 sap days3020012001: Mar 30 – Apr 29, 30 sap days3020002000: Mar 31 – May 4, 32 sap days3219991999: Mar 29 – Apr 29, 38 sap days3819981998: Apr 1 – Apr 28, 21 sap days2119971997: Apr 9 – May 9, 21 sap days2119961996: Apr 3 – May 8, 34 sap days3419951995: Apr 6 – May 7, 32 sap days3219941994: Apr 6 – May 11, 30 sap days3019931993: Mar 27 – Apr 28, 24 sap days2419921992: Apr 7 – May 11, 30 sap days3019911991: Mar 28 – Apr 29, 36 sap days36
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Alma. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Lac-Saint-Jean-Est 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 10 in Lac-Saint-Jean-Est; in 2016, 3 farms and 3,806 taps.

Over the five years the farm count changed +233%. 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.

Lac-Saint-Jean-Est maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
202110Ewithheld by Statistics Canada
201633,806
  • E Statistics Canada quality grade: use with caution.
  • "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 Alma, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 103 m (338 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

Lac-Saint-Jean-Est sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Lac-Saint-Jean-Est, Quebec?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 25 near Alma 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 17 and as late as Apr 15.
How much maple syrup does Lac-Saint-Jean-Est produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 10 farms reporting maple taps in Lac-Saint-Jean-Est; the tap count was withheld by Statistics Canada.
How many sap days does Lac-Saint-Jean-Est get in a season?
On average 28.9 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Alma, of which about 9.4 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 (40 sap days); the leanest was 2015 (16).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Alma (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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