Skip to content
LuckySap
Quebec · maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Témiscamingue, Quebec

Témiscamingue is a regional county municipality (MRC) in Quebec. Statistics Canada's 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 19 farms reporting maple taps and 139,621 taps here. Around Ville-Marie, sap usually runs from March 22 to April 29. Here's the long-run pattern, 35 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 166 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Mar 22
producers' record
Season ends
Apr 29
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
30
1991–2025 average
Taps, 2021
139,621
#46 of 61 in QC

Sap-flow outlook at Ville-Marie right now

Full Quebec forecast →

Forecast for Ville-Marie, QC

Updated Oct 7, 11:30 AM EDT

Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Témiscamingue's season usually opens around March 22, which is 166 days away.

No freeze-thaw days in the forecast

freeze thaw 0 °C

  1. ThuOct 8
    6° / 12°
    No refreeze forecast
  2. FriOct 9
    3° / 9°
    No refreeze forecast
  3. SatOct 10
    0° / 13°
    No refreeze forecast
  4. SunOct 11
    8° / 22°
    No refreeze forecast
  5. MonOct 12
    9° / 16°
    No refreeze forecast
  6. TueOct 13
    7° / 10°
    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 Ville-Marie

Freeze-thaw weather at Ville-Marie peaks in the weeks of Mar 23 to Apr 27, which hold about 60% 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 22 – Apr 290246Week of Dec 1: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 0.3 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: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 2: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 9: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 0.5 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 0.8 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 1.1 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 1.5 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 1.9 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 3.1 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 3.3 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 3.2 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 3.1 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 2.5 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 1.7 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 0.9 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.4 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.3 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Mar 22
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Ville-Marie, 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 29; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 23 and Apr 2. Earliest Mar 5 (2010), latest Apr 12 (2020).
Closing signal
Median Apr 30; middle half between Apr 25 and May 4. Earliest Mar 31 (2010), latest May 14 (1996).
Sap days by month
Dec6%Jan2%Feb6%Mar28%Apr45%May13%

35 seasons of sap weather

Témiscamingue seasons, 1991–2025

The best sap year at Ville-Marie was 2020 with 44 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2019 with 17. 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: Apr 1 – May 1, 30 sap days3020242024: Mar 20 – Apr 24, 39 sap days3920232023: Mar 27 – Apr 25, 23 sap days2320222022: Mar 30 – Apr 30, 31 sap days3120212021: Mar 11 – Apr 6, 24 sap days2420202020: Apr 12 – May 14, 44 sap days4420192019: Apr 7 – May 8, 17 sap days1720182018: Apr 6 – May 11, 24 sap days2420172017: Mar 27 – Apr 30, 38 sap days3820162016: Apr 2 – May 1, 34 sap days3420152015: Mar 28 – Apr 25, 23 sap days2320142014: Apr 5 – May 7, 20 sap days2020132013: Mar 29 – Apr 25, 26 sap days2620122012: Mar 8 – Apr 12, 28 sap days2820112011: Apr 1 – Apr 30, 25 sap days2520102010: Mar 5 – Mar 31, 34 sap days3420092009: Mar 28 – May 2, 33 sap days3320082008: Mar 31 – Apr 16, 20 sap days2020072007: Mar 22 – Apr 26, 26 sap days2620062006: Mar 23 – Apr 16, 25 sap days2520052005: Mar 22 – Apr 23, 34 sap days3420042004: Apr 2 – May 5, 33 sap days3320032003: Mar 31 – May 3, 25 sap days2520022002: Mar 30 – May 4, 31 sap days3120012001: Mar 27 – Apr 29, 29 sap days2920002000: Mar 22 – Apr 26, 33 sap days3319991999: Mar 25 – Apr 28, 40 sap days4019981998: Mar 16 – Apr 20, 34 sap days3419971997: Mar 30 – May 2, 26 sap days2619961996: Apr 10 – May 14, 40 sap days4019951995: Apr 3 – May 8, 33 sap days3319941994: Mar 31 – May 3, 32 sap days3219931993: Mar 29 – Apr 27, 30 sap days3019921992: Apr 5 – May 7, 33 sap days3319911991: Mar 23 – Apr 25, 33 sap days33
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily Daymet temperatures at Ville-Marie. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Témiscamingue 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 19 in Témiscamingue, with 139,621 taps; in 2016, 17 farms and 118,841 taps. Among Quebec's 61 census divisions with a published tap count, Témiscamingue ranks 46th, and 54th of the 94 in this atlas.

Over the five years the farm count changed +12% and taps +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.

Témiscamingue maple production, 2016 and 2021 (Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarms reporting tapsTaps
202119139,621
201617118,841

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 Ouest-du-Québec 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
10
under the joint marketing plan
Taps
135,118
as printed
Annual production
567,496 lb
estimate, pounds of syrup
Value
$1.9 million
Canadian dollars

Taps by forest ownership

Private forest 0%Public forest 100%

  • 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. Ouest-du-Québec sheet (PDF, French)

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 Ville-Marie, the division's most populous municipality in the 2021 Census; the cell sits at 233 m (764 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 : Ouest-du-Québec · 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

Témiscamingue sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Témiscamingue, Quebec?
In a typical year the sap starts running around March 22 near Ville-Marie 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 5 and as late as Apr 12.
How much maple syrup does Témiscamingue produce?
Statistics Canada doesn't publish syrup volume by census division. Its 2021 Census of Agriculture counted 19 farms reporting 139,621 maple taps in Témiscamingue, number 46 of 61 Quebec divisions with a published count. Separately, the PPAQ's 2026 fact sheet for the Ouest-du-Québec region estimates annual production at 567,496 lb of syrup from 135,118 taps.
How many sap days does Témiscamingue get in a season?
On average 30 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Ville-Marie, of which about 10.2 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 (44 sap days); the leanest was 2019 (17).
Where do these dates come from?
From 35 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Ville-Marie (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.

LuckySap · free on iPhone & Android

Know when the sap will run in Témiscamingue

LuckySap turns the forecast for your trees into a day-by-day sap-flow outlook, can ping you the evening before a strong sap day, and keeps every collection and boil in one season log. Free on iPhone and Android.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play