Maple sugaring in Lamoille County, Vermont
- Sap starts
- Mar 4
- typical year
- Season ends
- Apr 15
- about 6 weeks
- Sap days / season
- 39.4
- 1991–2026 average
- Taps, 2022
- 1.1 million
- #2 of 12 in VT
Sap-flow outlook at Hyde Park right now
Full Vermont forecast →Forecast for Hyde Park, VT
Updated Oct 6, 2:25 AM EDT
1 sap day in the next 6
freeze thaw 32°F
- WedOct 729° / 65°
4h below · 17h above
Sap likely - ThuOct 844° / 65°
0h below · 24h above
Run tapering - FriOct 939° / 57°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - SatOct 1037° / 58°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - SunOct 1136° / 68°
0h below · 24h above
No refreeze forecast - MonOct 1246° / 67°No refreeze forecast
Data: National Weather Service. Verdicts use freeze-thaw thresholds from maple field research; your woods may run a little differently.
When the sap runs
The sugaring calendar at Hyde Park
Year-to-year spread
- Opening signal
- Median Mar 15; the middle half of seasons fell between Mar 8 and Mar 20. Earliest Feb 17 (2012), latest Mar 27 (2001).
- Closing signal
- Median Apr 18; middle half between Apr 11 and Apr 21. Earliest Mar 13 (2012), latest Apr 30 (1992).
- Sap days by month
- Dec14%Jan9%Feb14%Mar30%Apr29%May4%
36 seasons of sap weather
Lamoille County seasons, 1991–2026
Maple production
Lamoille County in the Census of Agriculture
USDA counts maple operations every five years. In Lamoille County the 2022 Census found 110 farms making syrup (-2% since 2017), with taps +75% and syrup output +123% over the same five years. That works out to about 0.42 gallons of syrup per tap in 2022 (0.33 in 2017). Among the 385 counties in this atlas, Lamoille County ranks 3 by taps.
| Census year | Farms | Taps | Gallons of syrup | Gal / tap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 110 | 1,113,960 | 465,629 | 0.42 |
| 2017 | 112 | 637,401 | 208,397 | 0.33 |
Nearby
Neighboring maple counties
27 mi · Saint Albans, VT
Franklin County
Sap ~Mar 2 – Apr 9 · 2,436,351 taps
28 mi · Barre, VT
Washington County
Sap ~Mar 4 – Apr 14 · 96 farms
30 mi · Burlington, VT
Chittenden County
Sap ~Feb 25 – Apr 4 · 746,287 taps
31 mi · Newport, VT
Orleans County
Sap ~Mar 7 – Apr 15 · 911,598 taps
32 mi · Saint Johnsbury, VT
Caledonia County
Sap ~Mar 5 – Apr 16 · 330,819 taps
42 mi · Plattsburgh, NY
Clinton County
Sap ~Mar 6 – Apr 9 · 365,777 taps
About these numbers
The season dates are estimated from 36 seasons of daily high and low temperatures for the PRISM 4-km grid cell at Hyde Park (702ft), scored with the same freeze-thaw rule as our live forecast: a sap day is an overnight low under 30.2 °F followed by an afternoon high over 37.4 °F. Each season's closing signal is the last sap day before accumulated warmth reaches a threshold, and the opening signal sits five weeks before that, never earlier than the first real freeze-thaw week. Tested against 117 state-seasons of USDA-reported dates, the rule lands within 5.5 days of the reported close and 6.6 days of the reported opening on average, and the typical dates shown here are scaled to Vermont's USDA record (12 years). Production figures are copied from the Census as published. Full method, calibration tables and the downloadable dataset →
Sources · 6
- 1.2022 Census of Agriculture, County Level Data — Vermont, Table 37: Maple Syrup, 2022 and 2017 · USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
- 2.PRISM daily temperature grids (AN81d, 4 km), accessed 2026-10-05 · PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu
- 3.Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) web services · NOAA Regional Climate Centers
- 4.USDA NASS maple syrup reports — approximate average season opened and closed dates, 2011–2022 · USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (mirrored by the University of Vermont)
- 5.Sap flow in sugar maple: timing and weather drivers (Frontiers in Agronomy, 2025) · de Lima Santos et al.
- 6.GeoNames gazetteer (cities500), CC BY 4.0 · GeoNames
FAQ
Lamoille County sugaring questions
- When should I tap maple trees in Lamoille County, Vermont?
- In a typical year the sap starts running around March 4 near Hyde Park and the season winds down around April 15. Have your taps in a day or two before the first forecast string of freezing nights and 40 °F days. In the past 36 seasons the weather signal came as early as Feb 17 and as late as Mar 27.
- How much maple syrup does Lamoille County produce?
- The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 110 maple operations in Lamoille County with 1,113,960 taps producing 465,629 gallons of syrup, ranking 2 of 12 Vermont's counties with published tap counts.
- How many sap days does Lamoille County get in a season?
- On average 39.4 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Hyde Park, of which about 10.7 are textbook days with a night in the 20s and a day in the 40s. The best season since 1991 was 1999 (55 sap days); the leanest was 2015 (25).
- Where do these dates come from?
- From 36 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Hyde Park (PRISM 4-km grid), scored with the same freeze-thaw rule as our live forecast, then calibrated against USDA's reported season dates for Vermont. They describe a typical year at one point in the county; your sugarbush, slope and elevation can shift them by days.


