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Quebec · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec

Rivière-du-Loup is a regional county municipality (MRC) in Quebec. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 67 farms reporting maple taps and 449,137 taps here. Around Rivière-du-Loup, sap usually runs from March 25 to April 26. 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
Apr 26
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
20.8
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
449,137
#27 of 61 in QC

Sap-flow outlook at Rivière-du-Loup right now

Full Quebec forecast →

Forecast for Rivière-du-Loup, QC

Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT

Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Rivière-du-Loup'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° / 13°
    No refreeze forecast
  2. FriOct 9
    6° / 9°
    No refreeze forecast
  3. SatOct 10
    4° / 8°
    No refreeze forecast
  4. SunOct 11
    4° / 13°
    No refreeze forecast
  5. MonOct 12
    9° / 12°
    No refreeze forecast
  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 Rivière-du-Loup

Freeze-thaw weather at Rivière-du-Loup peaks in the weeks of Mar 23 to Apr 20, which hold about 53% 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 – Apr 260246Week of Dec 1: 0.8 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 0.5 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: 0.4 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: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 9: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 1.5 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.1 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 2.5 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 2.5 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 2.2 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 1.7 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 1.0 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.0 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.0 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 25
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Rivière-du-Loup, 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 3. Earliest Mar 16 (2021), latest Apr 11 (1997).
Closing signal
Median Apr 27; middle half between Apr 22 and May 1. Earliest Apr 4 (2021), latest May 13 (2020).
Sap days by month
Dec12%Jan5%Feb7%Mar30%Apr43%May3%

35 seasons of sap weather

Rivière-du-Loup seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Rivière-du-Loup was 1991 with 26 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2015 with 10. 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 27 – Apr 18, 20 sap days2020242024: Mar 25 – Apr 27, 26 sap days2620232023: Mar 27 – Apr 21, 21 sap days2120222022: Apr 1 – Apr 24, 22 sap days2220212021: Mar 16 – Apr 4, 13 sap days1320202020: Apr 11 – May 13, 26 sap days2620192019: Apr 1 – May 1, 20 sap days2020182018: Apr 3 – Apr 23, 21 sap days2120172017: Apr 2 – Apr 25, 19 sap days1920162016: Apr 6 – May 1, 24 sap days2420152015: Mar 30 – Apr 20, 10 sap days1020142014: Apr 4 – Apr 20, 15 sap days1520132013: Mar 29 – Apr 27, 24 sap days2420122012: Mar 30 – Apr 14, 18 sap days1820112011: Apr 3 – Apr 23, 23 sap days2320102010: Mar 21 – Apr 16, 25 sap days2520092009: Mar 28 – Apr 30, 26 sap days2620082008: Mar 30 – May 3, 18 sap days1820072007: Apr 2 – Apr 25, 24 sap days2420062006: Mar 22 – Apr 22, 18 sap days1820052005: Apr 1 – Apr 22, 24 sap days2420042004: Apr 3 – Apr 30, 25 sap days2520032003: Apr 4 – May 3, 14 sap days1420022002: Mar 31 – Apr 30, 24 sap days2420012001: Mar 30 – Apr 29, 17 sap days1720002000: Mar 31 – Apr 27, 17 sap days1719991999: Mar 25 – Apr 12, 26 sap days2619981998: Apr 5 – Apr 26, 19 sap days1919971997: Apr 11 – Apr 27, 15 sap days1519961996: Apr 2 – May 7, 24 sap days2419951995: Apr 7 – May 7, 24 sap days2419941994: Apr 2 – Apr 29, 23 sap days2319931993: Mar 28 – Apr 28, 15 sap days1519921992: Apr 5 – May 8, 22 sap days2219911991: Apr 2 – May 6, 26 sap days26
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Rivière-du-Loup. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Rivière-du-Loup 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 67 in Rivière-du-Loup, with 449,137 taps; in 2016, 55 farms and 362,770 taps. Among Quebec's 61 census divisions with a published tap count, Rivière-du-Loup ranks 27th, and 30th of the 94 in this atlas.

Over the five years the farm count changed +22% and taps +24%. 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.

Rivière-du-Loup maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
202167449,137
201655362,770

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
43
under the joint marketing plan
Taps
427,547
as printed
Annual production
1.4 million lb
estimate, pounds of syrup
Value
$4.8 million
Canadian dollars

Taps by forest ownership

Private forest 70%Public forest 30%

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 Rivière-du-Loup, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 53 m (174 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

Rivière-du-Loup sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 25 near Rivière-du-Loup and the season winds down around April 26. 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 16 and as late as Apr 11.
How much maple syrup does Rivière-du-Loup produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 67 farms reporting 449,137 maple taps in Rivière-du-Loup, number 27 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 1.4 million lb of syrup from 427,547 taps.
How many sap days does Rivière-du-Loup get in a season?
On average 20.8 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Rivière-du-Loup, of which about 10 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 1991 (26 sap days); the leanest was 2015 (10).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Rivière-du-Loup (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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