Davis User Stories

Weather Monitor II Tells Rick Dolliver When to Tap his Sugar Maples

Feburary 26, 2002

Apparently, people aren't the only ones who react to wind chill. According to Rick Dolliver of Williston, Vermont, Sugar Maple trees don't like it much either. In fact, the trees themselves are very precise biological weather stations that release their sweet sap only when a rather precise combination of temperature, humidity and wind conditions are met. Since maple trees keep their weather information to themselves, Rick uses the next best thing - a Davis Instruments Weather Monitor II - to help him decide when to turn on his 600 or so maple taps.

"When the snow melts around the base of the tree, we start looking at our weather data," Rick said. "It has to freeze at night, then get to 38 degrees by 11:00 a.m. - then the tree will give sap. We look at wind, too. Wind can make the trees 'shut down.' In fact, if you have buckets on the north and south sides of a tree, and there is wind blowing, the north side will shut down while the south side keeps running."

Rick and his wife collect enough sap each year to make about 200 gallons of syrup. When you consider that one tap collects about a quart of sap and it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of pancake topper, this number becomes very impressive.

"It's sort of hobby," Rick told us. "We use the syrup ourselves and give it away. It's also a good excuse to leave work early. When the Weather Monitor tells me it's time, I just have to go home!"

Although Rick's Weather Monitor II was purchased a few years ago, it doesn't seem to be showing its age. "It is one of the few things around here that doesn't go on the fritz! I thought it might get rusty and worn down after a few Vermont winters, but it is still going strong."

Sugar Snow

Sometimes a change of air currents caused by a low pressure cell with a cold front following a warm day creates "sugar snow." The skies get cloudy, and fat, wet snowflakes begin to fall. While one might think that the cold weather would keep the maple sap from flowing, the opposite is true. The warm preceding day and the low pressure cause the sap to flow prodigiously all night and all day. The buckets fill with cold, clear sap. The heavy snowfall makes the sugar house, with its roaring fires and aromatic, boiling sap, a very cozy place to be.