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Quebec · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Laval, Quebec

Laval 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 7 farms reporting maple taps here (taps withheld by Statistics Canada). Around Laval, sap usually runs from March 8 to April 13. 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 13
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
24.4
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
withheld
by Statistics Canada

Sap-flow outlook at Laval right now

Full Quebec forecast →

Forecast for Laval, QC

Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT

Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Laval'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
    12° / 17°
    No refreeze forecast
  2. FriOct 9
    9° / 14°
    No refreeze forecast
  3. SatOct 10
    4° / 14°
    No refreeze forecast
  4. SunOct 11
    10° / 24°
    No refreeze forecast
  5. MonOct 12
    13° / 18°
    No refreeze forecast
  6. TueOct 13
    11° / 15°
    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 Laval

Freeze-thaw weather at Laval peaks in the weeks of Mar 9 to Apr 6, which hold about 46% 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 130246Week of Dec 1: 1.0 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: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 5: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 12: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 0.4 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: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 0.8 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 0.9 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 1.5 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 1.9 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 1.8 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.6 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 2.6 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 2.3 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 1.5 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 0.8 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 0.0 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 Laval, 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 2 (2010), latest Mar 29 (2015).
Closing signal
Median Apr 14; middle half between Apr 9 and Apr 17. Earliest Mar 28 (2010), latest Apr 23 (1994).
Sap days by month
Dec15%Jan9%Feb12%Mar36%Apr28%May1%

35 seasons of sap weather

Laval seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Laval was 1999 with 38 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2015 with 11. 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 12 – Apr 10, 19 sap days1920242024: Mar 3 – Apr 3, 29 sap days2920232023: Mar 12 – Apr 9, 34 sap days3420222022: Mar 12 – Apr 11, 28 sap days2820212021: Mar 9 – Apr 3, 23 sap days2320202020: Mar 10 – Apr 8, 34 sap days3420192019: Mar 20 – Apr 17, 21 sap days2120182018: Mar 23 – Apr 22, 33 sap days3320172017: Mar 9 – Apr 9, 14 sap days1420162016: Mar 22 – Apr 16, 30 sap days3020152015: Mar 29 – Apr 8, 11 sap days1120142014: Mar 28 – Apr 20, 17 sap days1720132013: Mar 15 – Apr 15, 29 sap days2920122012: Mar 27 – Mar 29, 29 sap days2920112011: Mar 17 – Apr 19, 20 sap days2020102010: Mar 2 – Mar 28, 15 sap days1520092009: Mar 14 – Apr 14, 29 sap days2920082008: Mar 17 – Apr 16, 17 sap days1720072007: Mar 16 – Apr 11, 23 sap days2320062006: Mar 8 – Apr 9, 18 sap days1820052005: Mar 14 – Apr 16, 25 sap days2520042004: Mar 17 – Apr 17, 26 sap days2620032003: Mar 20 – Apr 18, 17 sap days1720022002: Mar 12 – Apr 7, 25 sap days2520012001: Mar 21 – Apr 19, 22 sap days2220002000: Mar 5 – Apr 7, 28 sap days2819991999: Mar 13 – Apr 12, 38 sap days3819981998: Mar 10 – Apr 12, 14 sap days1419971997: Mar 23 – Apr 15, 23 sap days2319961996: Mar 18 – Apr 16, 27 sap days2719951995: Mar 15 – Apr 18, 35 sap days3519941994: Mar 20 – Apr 23, 26 sap days2619931993: Mar 24 – Apr 7, 20 sap days2019921992: Mar 22 – Apr 17, 22 sap days2219911991: Mar 11 – Apr 14, 32 sap days32
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Laval. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Laval 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 7 in Laval; in 2016, 6 farms and 10,850 taps.

Over the five years the farm count changed +17%. 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.

Laval maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
20217withheld by Statistics Canada
2016610,850
  • "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 Laval, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 31 m (102 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

Laval sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Laval, Quebec?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 8 near Laval and the season winds down around April 13. 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 Mar 29.
How much maple syrup does Laval produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 7 farms reporting maple taps in Laval; the tap count was withheld by Statistics Canada.
How many sap days does Laval get in a season?
On average 24.4 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Laval, of which about 10.7 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 1999 (38 sap days); the leanest was 2015 (11).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Laval (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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