After escaping a winter storm yesterday that brought 12" of snow to southern Minnesota and only flurries to our area, we are back to Spring today! As I write this note, the temperature is 42.9 degrees, the sun is shining brightly and not a cloud in the sky. The nighttime temperature dropped to 24 degrees, so we have had the rapid swing we desire for sap flow.Although somewhat variable, the sap flow at present is roughly 80 gallons /hour! We'll pump the sap up to the sugarhouse tonight, run it through the pool filter and UV light, then cool it down to 33 degrees to prevent any degrading due to warm temperatures.

The forecast for the remainder of the week looks promising for continued sap flow in what is amounting to be a much longer season than some of us anticipated. Specific forecast detail is available if your cursor is over the image:

Molly Rosenblatt visited Somerskogen Sugarbush to find out how the unseasonably warm weather is affecting maple syrup production. Check out her interview:

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/03/16/maple-syrup-warm-weather/

The markedly warm weather accelerated the loss of snow deep in the woods and the thinning of ice on the lake. The ice left Whaletail ( defined as 90% of ice off the lake ) on the afternoon of March 13th. This was the earliest in our 22 years on the lake. We suspect it is one of the earliest on record,  as Lake Minnetonka, which is one mile to our east, had ice-out on March 16th, the earliest since 1878!

This last week sap flow slowed to less than one gallon of sap per tap per day. The quality of the syrup remains outstanding, but we are seeing more of the Dark Robust grade of syrup.