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West Virginia · county maple atlas

Maple sugaring in Barbour County, West Virginia

Barbour County had 7 maple operations and 726 taps in the 2022 Census. Around Philippi, sap usually runs from February 7 to March 15. Here's the long-run pattern, 36 seasons of sap weather, and the outlook this week.
Too early to tapAbout 124 days until the usual start.
Sap starts
Feb 7
typical year
Season ends
Mar 15
about 5 weeks
Sap days / season
52.2
1991–2026 average
Taps, 2022
726
#9 of 29 in WV

Sap-flow outlook at Philippi right now

Full West Virginia forecast →

Forecast for Philippi, WV

Updated Oct 6, 9:50 AM EDT

Off-season for now. Sap needs freezing nights, and none are in sight. Barbour County's season usually opens around February 7, which is 124 days away.

No freeze-thaw days in the forecast

freeze thaw 32°F

  1. WedOct 7
    46° / 68°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  2. ThuOct 8
    53° / 72°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  3. FriOct 9
    46° / 69°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  4. SatOct 10
    46° / 74°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  5. SunOct 11
    52° / 69°

    0h below · 24h above

    No refreeze forecast
  6. MonOct 12
    54° / 71°
    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 Philippi

Freeze-thaw weather at Philippi peaks in the weeks of Dec 1 to Mar 23, which hold about 91% of a season's sap days. March is the busiest month.
Typical season: Feb 7 – Mar 150246Week of Dec 1: 2.6 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 8: 3.2 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 15: 2.9 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 22: 2.5 sap days on averageWeek of Dec 29: 2.1 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 5: 2.4 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 12: 2.4 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 19: 2.0 sap days on averageWeek of Jan 26: 2.8 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 2: 3.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 9: 3.3 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 16: 3.2 sap days on averageWeek of Feb 23: 3.1 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 2: 3.4 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 9: 3.3 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 16: 2.8 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 23: 2.7 sap days on averageWeek of Mar 30: 1.8 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 6: 1.6 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 13: 0.8 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 20: 0.3 sap days on averageWeek of Apr 27: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of May 4: 0.0 sap days on averageWeek of May 11: 0.1 sap days on averageWeek of May 18: 0.0 sap days on averageWeek of May 25: 0.0 sap days on averageDecJanFebMarAprMaytaps in ~Feb 7
Average number of freeze-thaw sap days in each week of the season at Philippi, 1991–2026. A sap day is an overnight low under 30.2 °F followed by an afternoon high over 37.4 °F. The shaded band is the typical season.

Year-to-year spread

Opening signal
Median Jan 31; the middle half of seasons fell between Jan 18 and Feb 3. Earliest Jan 6 (1999), latest Feb 14 (2014).
Closing signal
Median Mar 4; middle half between Feb 18 and Mar 10. Earliest Jan 31 (2020), latest Mar 20 (2015).
Sap days by month
Dec23%Jan20%Feb24%Mar25%Apr8%May0%

36 seasons of sap weather

Barbour County seasons, 1991–2026

The best sap year at Philippi was 2004 with 66 freeze-thaw days; the leanest was 2010 with 29. 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 days20262026: Jan 29 – Mar 3, 51 sap days5120252025: Feb 4 – Mar 11, 55 sap days5520242024: Jan 9 – Feb 9, 51 sap days5120232023: Jan 8 – Feb 8, 55 sap days5520222022: Jan 31 – Mar 5, 57 sap days5720212021: Feb 6 – Mar 13, 54 sap days5420202020: Jan 6 – Jan 31, 42 sap days4220192019: Jan 17 – Feb 20, 55 sap days5520182018: Jan 15 – Feb 18, 62 sap days6220172017: Jan 30 – Feb 7, 38 sap days3820162016: Jan 31 – Mar 4, 41 sap days4120152015: Feb 14 – Mar 20, 43 sap days4320142014: Feb 14 – Mar 18, 51 sap days5120132013: Feb 3 – Mar 10, 52 sap days5220122012: Jan 19 – Feb 22, 54 sap days5420112011: Feb 1 – Mar 8, 38 sap days3820102010: Feb 12 – Mar 10, 29 sap days2920092009: Feb 3 – Mar 6, 53 sap days5320082008: Jan 28 – Mar 4, 59 sap days5920072007: Feb 4 – Mar 11, 52 sap days5220062006: Jan 7 – Feb 2, 58 sap days5820052005: Jan 25 – Feb 6, 46 sap days4620042004: Jan 31 – Mar 4, 66 sap days6620032003: Feb 12 – Mar 15, 41 sap days4120022002: Jan 12 – Feb 16, 60 sap days6020012001: Feb 5 – Mar 12, 55 sap days5520002000: Jan 21 – Feb 23, 62 sap days6219991999: Jan 6 – Feb 10, 61 sap days6119981998: Jan 12 – Feb 16, 51 sap days5119971997: Jan 18 – Feb 19, 59 sap days5919961996: Jan 31 – Mar 6, 54 sap days5419951995: Jan 31 – Mar 5, 61 sap days6119941994: Feb 8 – Mar 14, 51 sap days5119931993: Feb 1 – Mar 8, 46 sap days4619921992: Jan 24 – Feb 18, 57 sap days5719911991: Jan 26 – Mar 1, 60 sap days60
Each bar runs from the season's opening signal to its closing signal, estimated from daily temperatures at Philippi. Dashed lines mark the typical dates. The right column counts freeze-thaw sap days from December through May.

Maple production

Barbour County in the Census of Agriculture

USDA counts maple operations every five years. In Barbour County the 2022 Census found 7 farms making syrup (+133% since 2017). That works out to about 0.11 gallons of syrup per tap in 2022. Among the 385 counties in this atlas, Barbour County ranks 297 by taps.

Barbour County maple production, 2017 and 2022 (USDA Census of Agriculture)
Census yearFarmsTapsGallons of syrupGal / tap
20227726790.11
20173withheldwithheld—

“Withheld” means USDA suppressed the figure to avoid disclosing data for individual operations; the farm count is still published.

Nearby

Neighboring maple counties

Distances are between reference towns; typical dates are each county's own estimate.

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 Philippi (1,486ft), 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 West Virginia's USDA record (3 years). Production figures are copied from the Census as published. Full method, calibration tables and the downloadable dataset →

Sources · 6

  1. 1.2022 Census of Agriculture, County Level Data — West Virginia, Table 37: Maple Syrup, 2022 and 2017 · USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
  2. 2.PRISM daily temperature grids (AN81d, 4 km), accessed 2026-10-05 · PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu
  3. 3.Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) web services · NOAA Regional Climate Centers
  4. 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. 5.Sap flow in sugar maple: timing and weather drivers (Frontiers in Agronomy, 2025) · de Lima Santos et al.
  6. 6.GeoNames gazetteer (cities500), CC BY 4.0 · GeoNames

FAQ

Barbour County sugaring questions

When should I tap maple trees in Barbour County, West Virginia?
In a typical year the sap starts running around February 7 near Philippi and the season winds down around March 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 Jan 6 and as late as Feb 14.
How much maple syrup does Barbour County produce?
The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 7 maple operations in Barbour County with 726 taps producing 79 gallons of syrup, ranking 9 of 29 West Virginia's counties with published tap counts.
How many sap days does Barbour County get in a season?
On average 52.2 freeze-thaw sap days from December through May at Philippi, of which about 13.7 are textbook days with a night in the 20s and a day in the 40s. The best season since 1991 was 2004 (66 sap days); the leanest was 2010 (29).
Where do these dates come from?
From 36 seasons of daily high and low temperatures at Philippi (PRISM 4-km grid), scored with the same freeze-thaw rule as our live forecast, then calibrated against USDA's reported season dates for West Virginia. They describe a typical year at one point in the county; your sugarbush, slope and elevation can shift them by days.

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