This Year's Spring Weather Made Vermont's Annual Maple Sugar Harvest Suck

A truck collects maple sap gathered in St. Albans, Vermont
this past March 21.  The sugaring season was lackluster
due mostly to early bouts of unseasonably warm weather.

The recent bout of winter weather in Vermont notwithstanding, a very warm, very early spring really screwed up our all-important maple sugaring season. 

Most maple producers only made 40 to 70 percent of their average crop during this year's season, according to the Associated Press, sourcing from the Burlington Free Press

A much-too-premature bout of 70 degree weather in March plus low sugar content in the maple sap are to blame for the lackluster yield.   

Vermont's maple sugar harvest usually runs from late February into April. Record warmth from March 23 to 26 brought a premature ending to season, especially for producers in the warmer valleys of the Green Mountain State. 

In northeastern Vermont and in some higher elevations, where the sugaring season often lasts well into April, a long spell of more record and near record warmth between April 8 and 14 put the kibosh on the season. 

Though yields were down this year, it doesn't look like there will be a maple supply shortage. The Vermont Maple Sugar Makers' Association says one off year won't mess up supplies.  If we have several bad years in a row, then it becomes a problem.

Vermont is by far the nation's leading maple producer.  We normally produce about 2 million gallons of syrup, which makes up more than half of all U.S. production. 

Climate change is disrupting and altering Vermont's famed sugaring season. The Proctor Maple Research Center says sugaring season starts 8.3 days earlier and ends 11.6 days earlier than it did five decades ago. 

The season also tends to end earlier than it once did.  Though there have been some great maple yields in recent years, there have been a disturbing recent few years, like this one, in which erratic weather disrupted the season.