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Quebec · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Shawinigan, Quebec

Shawinigan 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 5 farms reporting maple taps here (taps withheld by Statistics Canada). Around Shawinigan, sap usually runs from March 18 to April 24. Here's the long-run pattern, 35 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 162 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Mar 18
producers' record
Season ends
Apr 24
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
28.2
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
withheld
by Statistics Canada

Sap-flow outlook at Shawinigan right now

Full Quebec forecast →

Forecast for Shawinigan, QC

Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT

Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Shawinigan's season usually opens around March 18, which is 162 days away.

No freeze-thaw days in the forecast

freeze thaw 0 °C

  1. ThuOct 8
    11° / 14°
    No refreeze forecast
  2. FriOct 9
    8° / 13°
    No refreeze forecast
  3. SatOct 10
    4° / 12°
    No refreeze forecast
  4. SunOct 11
    8° / 21°
    No refreeze forecast
  5. MonOct 12
    12° / 17°
    No refreeze forecast
  6. TueOct 13
    9° / 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 Shawinigan

Freeze-thaw weather at Shawinigan 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 18 – Apr 240246Week of Dec 1: 0.7 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: 0.4 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: 0.1 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: 0.2 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 0.7 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 1.0 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 1.3 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 1.8 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 2.1 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 3.1 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 3.5 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 3.2 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 2.3 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 1.6 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 0.6 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.1 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 18
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Shawinigan, 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 25; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 24 and Mar 31. Earliest Mar 5 (2010), latest Apr 9 (2003).
Closing signal
Median Apr 25; middle half between Apr 21 and Apr 29. Earliest Mar 30 (2010), latest May 5 (1997).
Sap days by month
Dec8%Jan3%Feb8%Mar34%Apr42%May5%

35 seasons of sap weather

Shawinigan seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Shawinigan was 2020 with 45 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2015 with 13. 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 24 – Apr 24, 30 sap days3020242024: Mar 12 – Apr 10, 33 sap days3320232023: Mar 24 – Apr 28, 37 sap days3720222022: Mar 27 – Apr 24, 22 sap days2220212021: Mar 17 – Apr 4, 21 sap days2120202020: Mar 30 – Apr 30, 45 sap days4520192019: Apr 1 – May 1, 26 sap days2620182018: Mar 31 – Apr 24, 33 sap days3320172017: Mar 23 – Apr 25, 26 sap days2620162016: Apr 1 – May 1, 34 sap days3420152015: Apr 7 – Apr 18, 13 sap days1320142014: Mar 31 – Apr 25, 22 sap days2220132013: Mar 24 – Apr 28, 33 sap days3320122012: Mar 12 – Apr 14, 29 sap days2920112011: Mar 27 – Apr 25, 26 sap days2620102010: Mar 5 – Mar 30, 29 sap days2920092009: Mar 22 – Apr 24, 32 sap days3220082008: Apr 4 – Apr 18, 16 sap days1620072007: Mar 25 – Apr 26, 26 sap days2620062006: Mar 15 – Apr 11, 24 sap days2420052005: Mar 22 – Apr 22, 33 sap days3320042004: Mar 27 – Apr 26, 30 sap days3020032003: Apr 9 – May 3, 14 sap days1420022002: Mar 28 – Apr 25, 24 sap days2420012001: Mar 27 – Apr 29, 32 sap days3220002000: Mar 25 – Apr 28, 34 sap days3419991999: Mar 25 – Apr 28, 37 sap days3719981998: Mar 25 – Apr 14, 22 sap days2219971997: Mar 31 – May 5, 27 sap days2719961996: Mar 27 – Apr 30, 32 sap days3219951995: Mar 24 – Apr 25, 32 sap days3219941994: Mar 31 – May 3, 25 sap days2519931993: Mar 24 – Apr 28, 21 sap days2119921992: Mar 30 – May 2, 34 sap days3419911991: Mar 22 – Apr 19, 34 sap days34
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Shawinigan. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Shawinigan 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 5 in Shawinigan; in 2016, 6 farms and 6,200 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.

Shawinigan maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
20215withheld by Statistics Canada
201666,200
  • "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 Shawinigan, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 122 m (400 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

Shawinigan sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Shawinigan, Quebec?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 18 near Shawinigan and the season winds down around April 24. 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 5 and as late as Apr 9.
How much maple syrup does Shawinigan produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 5 farms reporting maple taps in Shawinigan; the tap count was withheld by Statistics Canada.
How many sap days does Shawinigan get in a season?
On average 28.2 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Shawinigan, of which about 10.6 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 (45 sap days); the leanest was 2015 (13).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Shawinigan (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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