Maple Syrup
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Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook.

When the maple sap starts running, producers of its sweet derivative know spring is coming.

The interesting thing is, another season-fall, has the same cold nights and warm days. So why don't producers make syrup then? Weather Notebook Correspondent Claire Holman fills us in.

New Englanders often complain they get no spring. The weather just goes from winter to summer, but in the six or so weeks of freezing nights and thawing days lies the secret to maple syrup.

But similar weather occurs in the fall in New England, so why isn't syrup made then? Lyle Merrifield of Merrifield farm in Gorham, Maine says traditional farmers had time to make syrup in the spring, compared to the very busy fall. Also, cool spring temeratures in the spring help keep sap fresh.

LM: Fall temperatures could be easily 65-70 degrees and you are trying to keep that sap cool. So, the sap could go by pretty quickly on you in the fall, I think.

John Snell runs a small syrup operation in Buxton, Maine. Snell says syrup has been made in the fall, but there are fewer day with the right temperatures. And since sugar maples give only one or two gallons a day, and it takes 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup, a fall run would probably not be worthwhile. There is also the question of flavor.

JS: It doesn't necessarily taste as good and it would be a lot darker because it hasn't fully changed from starch to sugar.

Snell says according to tradition, with "wind from the west, sap runs best." Along with favorable breezes, maple sugar producers are looking for the best spring conditions: cold nights, enough snow to keep the roots cool, and sunny days to get sap flowing.

Correspondent Claire Holman comes to us from Portland, Maine. The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory and is supported in part by the National Science Foundation. Thanks today to assistant producer and resident sweet tooth, Doug Sanborn.