Remember when Les said he would come back at the season’s conclusion to tell you in 20/20 hindsight exactly what you may already suspect, he’s back to make some sense of the 2024 sugaring season! Enjoy.
The Ohio maple syrup season ended on the first weekend in March. This comes less than a week after President’s Day, the traditional starting date for the season in Ohio. Of course, not this year as many Ohio producers started the 2024 season in January. If you are a maple producer, you must wonder if the climatologist and everything we have been hearing about our climate is right. Is February becoming the new March?
Let’s analyze what we have seen and experienced in 2024. OSU Climatologist Dr. Aaron Wilson has been telling us that the winters will get milder, and Spring will come earlier. Once again, I refer to historical weather data to make a point using Weather Underground weather history maps. Dating back to 2021, here is what I consider a relatively normal March (below).
Here is February of this year, 2024 (below).
It has been reported over the last several months that we ended 2023 with almost record-breaking high temperatures for November and December. In fact, the climatological winter (December, January, and February) was the third warmest on record. The 2nd warmest occurred in 1931. The warm weather sent a warning to many maple producers, alerting them that something unusual was about to happen. In Ohio, those that tapped in mid-January got it right. Those tapping right after the first of the year were rewarded with 6 to 8 weeks of maple producing weather. Many recorded over 14 boils before the first of March. This year undoubtedly sets a new benchmark for early tapping. Why did this happen and what can we learn from the experience.
The winter of 2023/24 followed the long-range forecast’s prediction. With the exception of the invasion of a cold air mass in mid-January, the mild temperatures came back and continued throughout February. This set up some extraordinarily good runs throughout the state. However, a troubling and confounding factor was the overall lack of moisture. I would say that many parts of Ohio were below average on moisture during this period. Dryness in the woods is not good for maple production. It is much preferred to have 4 to 8 inches of slowly melting snow, at the very least, lots of rainy days interspersed through the season. I have seen woods that face north where the snowpack will last almost to the end of March. These woods have produced good runs all the way to the end of March and even into April. Not this year.
Here is the graph (above) showing the high, low, and average temperatures for the first two weeks in March. The important thing to look at here is the minimum and maximum temperatures that clearly show we not only had daytime temperatures in the first two weeks March above 50 degrees F, but also had nighttime temperatures that approached and even hit 50 degrees. This totally wiped out the freeze/thaw cycle, and we all know you cannot make syrup without a freeze/thaw cycle. Sustained temperatures above freezing will undoubtedly be a recurring problem into the future. Warm temperatures also accelerates the accumulation of Growing Degree Days, pushing the trees toward budding. However, buddy sap did not end the season in much of Ohio. It was the acceleration of microbial growth resulting from an abundance of unseasonably warm temperatures causing the sap to warm and foul systems. It is almost impossible to make quality syrup under these conditions. During the Ohio Maple Tour, I tasted multiple samples of syrup made in early March. Just about all had that sharp taste of syrup made from sour sap.
Now comes the real challenge! How do we prevent the possibility of this very marginal syrup from entering the market? Especially in a year when many producers in states like Ohio had a poor year and now have syrup of questionable quality to sell. Do you bottle the syrup and hope no one notices? After all, it may have good color somewhere between Amber and Dark Robust. The rationale in the past has been that most customers will not pick up on the off flavor; after all, they are used to high fructose corn syrup imitations. The question now turns becomes, how much high-quality syrup will be made in the Northeast and in Canada this year? Will the syrup they sell to the big box stores have better quality than what our customers can buy locally? We already know it will most likely be less expensive.
In the end what have we learn? We added one more year to the string of abnormally warm maple seasons that we have experienced over the last 5 years. For Ohio producers tapped in January, many experienced a near normal season. Operations made some very good syrup that did not have quality issues. Their markets are covered. This also means that in 2025 when New Years Day rolls around, those producers who gambled right in 2024 will again be ready to tap trees at the first signal of good sugaring weather. Unfortunately for many Ohio producers tapping later in the calendar, this year will be a hard lesson. Those that tapped after mid-February found out that you cannot trust Mother Nature, because she does not read the Calendar.