Maple sugaring in Pierre-De Saurel, Quebec
- Sap starts
- Mar 12
- producers' record
- Season ends
- Apr 15
- about 5 weeks
- Sap days / season
- 23.3
- 1991–2025 average
- Taps, 2021
- 37,680
- #61 of 61 in QC
Sap-flow outlook at Sorel-Tracy right now
Full Quebec forecast →Forecast for Sorel-Tracy, QC
Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT
Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Pierre-De Saurel's season usually opens around March 12, which is 156 days away.
No freeze-thaw days in the forecast
freeze thaw 0 °C
- ThuOct 810° / 16°No refreeze forecast
- FriOct 99° / 12°No refreeze forecast
- SatOct 103° / 14°No refreeze forecast
- SunOct 119° / 23°No refreeze forecast
- MonOct 1213° / 18°No refreeze forecast
- TueOct 1311° / 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 Sorel-Tracy
Year-to-year spread
- Opening signal
- Median Mar 19; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 15 and Mar 23. Earliest Feb 28 (2010), latest Apr 8 (1998).
- Closing signal
- Median Apr 16; middle half between Apr 11 and Apr 20. Earliest Mar 28 (2010), latest Apr 26 (2020).
- Sap days by month
- Dec12%Jan7%Feb12%Mar38%Apr31%May1%
35 seasons of sap weather
Pierre-De Saurel seasons, 1991–2025
Maple production
Pierre-De Saurel 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 21 in Pierre-De Saurel, with 37,680 taps; in 2016, 32 farms and 38,247 taps. Among Quebec's 61 census divisions with a published tap count, Pierre-De Saurel ranks 61st, and 82nd of the 94 in this atlas.
Over the five years the farm count changed −34% and taps −1%. 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.
| Census year | Farms reporting taps | Taps |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 21 | 37,680E |
| 2016 | 32 | 38,247 |
- E Statistics Canada quality grade: use with caution.
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 Montérégie-Est 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
- 20
- under the joint marketing plan
- Taps
- 58,902
- as printed
- Annual production
- 298,044 lb
- estimate, pounds of syrup
- Value
- $998,447
- Canadian dollars
Taps by forest ownership
Private forest 100%Public forest 0%
- Annual production is PPAQ's estimate (Groupe AGÉCO's yield estimate applied to the taps), not a measured harvest. Montérégie-Est sheet (PDF, French)
Nearby
Neighboring maple divisions
22 km · Lavaltrie
D'Autray
Sap ~Mar 10 – Apr 15 · 42 farms
24 km · Joliette
Joliette
Sap ~Mar 12 – Apr 16 · 52,495 taps
27 km · Louiseville
Maskinongé
Sap ~Mar 14 – Apr 16 · 47 farms
42 km · Repentigny
L'Assomption
Sap ~Mar 10 – Apr 15 · 40,247 taps
44 km · Nicolet
Nicolet-Yamaska
Sap ~Mar 13 – Apr 18 · 284,959 taps
46 km · Rawdon
Matawinie
Sap ~Mar 18 – Apr 23 · 235,245 taps
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 Sorel-Tracy, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 6 m (20 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.Maple taps, Census of Agriculture, 2021 (Table 32-10-0362-01) · Statistics Canada
- 2.Maple taps, Census of Agriculture, 2011 and 2016 (Table 32-10-0423-01) · Statistics Canada
- 3.Fiche région 2026 : Montérégie-Est · Producteurs et productrices acéricoles du Québec
- 4.Daymet: Daily Surface Weather Data on a 1-km Grid for North America, Version 4 R1 · ORNL DAAC
- 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.Sap flow in sugar maple: timing and weather drivers (Frontiers in Agronomy, 2025) · de Lima Santos et al.
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- 7.2021 Census cartographic boundary files (census divisions, population centres) · Statistics Canada
- 8.Population and dwelling counts, 2021 Census (Tables 98-10-0002-01 and 98-10-0011-01) · Statistics Canada
- 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
Pierre-De Saurel sugaring questions
- When should I tap maple trees in Pierre-De Saurel, Quebec?
- In a typical year the sap starts running around March 12 near Sorel-Tracy 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 Feb 28 and as late as Apr 8.
- How much maple syrup does Pierre-De Saurel produce?
- Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 21 farms reporting 37,680 maple taps in Pierre-De Saurel, number 61 of 61 Quebec divisions with a published count. Separately, the PPAQ's 2026 fact sheet for the Montérégie-Est region estimates annual production at 298,044 lb of syrup from 58,902 taps.
- How many sap days does Pierre-De Saurel get in a season?
- On average 23.3 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Sorel-Tracy, of which about 10.3 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 (37 sap days); the leanest was 2015 (8).
- Where do these dates come from?
- From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Sorel-Tracy (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.


