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Quebec · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Les Etchemins, Quebec

Les Etchemins is a regional county municipality (MRC) in Quebec. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 301 farms reporting maple taps and 1,738,699 taps here. Around Lac-Etchemin, sap usually runs from March 23 to April 29. Here's the long-run pattern, 35 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 167 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Mar 23
producers' record
Season ends
Apr 29
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
31.1
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
1.7 million
#9 of 61 in QC

Sap-flow outlook at Lac-Etchemin right now

Full Quebec forecast →

Forecast for Lac-Etchemin, QC

Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT

Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Les Etchemins's season usually opens around March 23, which is 167 days away.

No freeze-thaw days in the forecast

freeze thaw 0 °C

  1. ThuOct 8
    9° / 13°
    No refreeze forecast
  2. FriOct 9
    7° / 12°
    No refreeze forecast
  3. SatOct 10
    1° / 10°
    No refreeze forecast
  4. SunOct 11
    4° / 19°
    No refreeze forecast
  5. MonOct 12
    11° / 15°
    No refreeze forecast
  6. TueOct 13
    8° / 12°
    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 Lac-Etchemin

Freeze-thaw weather at Lac-Etchemin peaks in the weeks of Mar 23 to Apr 27, which hold about 56% 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 23 – Apr 290246Week of Dec 1: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 0.3 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: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 2: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 9: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 0.9 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 1.0 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 1.7 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 1.7 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.6 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 3.1 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 3.2 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 3.2 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 3.0 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 2.2 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 1.6 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.3 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 23
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Lac-Etchemin, 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 30; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 26 and Apr 3. Earliest Mar 14 (2012), latest Apr 10 (1997).
Closing signal
Median Apr 30; middle half between Apr 28 and May 6. Earliest Apr 15 (2012), latest May 15 (2020).
Sap days by month
Dec8%Jan4%Feb7%Mar27%Apr42%May13%

35 seasons of sap weather

Les Etchemins seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Lac-Etchemin was 2020 with 42 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: Mar 25 – Apr 21, 32 sap days3220242024: Mar 25 – Apr 28, 39 sap days3920232023: Mar 25 – Apr 28, 38 sap days3820222022: Mar 29 – May 2, 40 sap days4020212021: Mar 17 – Apr 15, 27 sap days2720202020: Apr 10 – May 15, 42 sap days4220192019: Apr 3 – May 8, 30 sap days3020182018: Mar 31 – Apr 24, 34 sap days3420172017: Mar 30 – May 4, 28 sap days2820162016: Apr 6 – May 10, 37 sap days3720152015: Mar 30 – Apr 25, 18 sap days1820142014: Apr 3 – May 8, 26 sap days2620132013: Mar 27 – Apr 28, 29 sap days2920122012: Mar 14 – Apr 15, 29 sap days2920112011: Apr 2 – May 1, 25 sap days2520102010: Mar 17 – Apr 21, 35 sap days3520092009: Mar 25 – Apr 29, 37 sap days3720082008: Mar 27 – Apr 18, 27 sap days2720072007: Apr 3 – May 6, 34 sap days3420062006: Mar 19 – Apr 22, 35 sap days3520052005: Apr 1 – May 6, 34 sap days3420042004: Mar 29 – Apr 30, 35 sap days3520032003: Apr 1 – May 5, 21 sap days2120022002: Mar 31 – May 4, 30 sap days3020012001: Mar 30 – Apr 29, 29 sap days2920002000: Mar 30 – May 4, 35 sap days3519991999: Mar 30 – Apr 28, 39 sap days3919981998: Mar 25 – Apr 28, 26 sap days2619971997: Apr 10 – May 9, 29 sap days2919961996: Apr 1 – May 4, 31 sap days3119951995: Apr 3 – May 7, 29 sap days2919941994: Apr 4 – May 3, 26 sap days2619931993: Mar 26 – Apr 28, 27 sap days2719921992: Apr 5 – May 8, 27 sap days2719911991: Mar 27 – Apr 29, 29 sap days29
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Lac-Etchemin. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Les Etchemins 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 301 in Les Etchemins, with 1,738,699 taps; in 2016, 274 farms and 1,829,692 taps. Among Quebec's 61 census divisions with a published tap count, Les Etchemins ranks 9th, and 10th of the 94 in this atlas.

Over the five years the farm count changed +10% and taps −5%. 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.

Les Etchemins maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
20213011,738,699
20162741,829,692

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 Beauce 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
317
under the joint marketing plan
Taps
2.0 million
rounded, as printed
Annual production
7.6 million lb
estimate, pounds of syrup
Value
$25.5 million
Canadian dollars

Taps by forest ownership

Private forest 94%Public forest 6%

  • Figures in millions are rounded to a tenth, as PPAQ printed them.
  • Annual production is PPAQ's estimate (Groupe AGÉCO's yield estimate applied to the taps), not a measured harvest. Beauce sheet (PDF, French)

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 Lac-Etchemin, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 408 m (1,339 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 : Beauce · 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

Les Etchemins sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Les Etchemins, Quebec?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 23 near Lac-Etchemin and the season winds down around April 29. 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 14 and as late as Apr 10.
How much maple syrup does Les Etchemins produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 301 farms reporting 1,738,699 maple taps in Les Etchemins, number 9 of 61 Quebec divisions with a published count. Separately, the PPAQ's 2026 fact sheet for the Beauce region estimates annual production at 7.6 million lb of syrup from 2.0 million taps.
How many sap days does Les Etchemins get in a season?
On average 31.1 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Lac-Etchemin, of which about 9.9 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 (42 sap days); the leanest was 2015 (18).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Lac-Etchemin (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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