Photo: Fralambert · CC BY-SA 3.0High radon around Haut-Madawaska: 29% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Haut-Madawaska: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. For earthquakes Haut-Madawaska is middling, $0.054 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Haut-Madawaska a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Haut-Madawaska’s hazards
For Haut-Madawaska, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Haut-Madawaska faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Haut-Madawaska: D
Two inputs always count for Haut-Madawaska, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #52 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,491 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Haut-Madawaska: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Haut-Madawaska’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Haut-Madawaska is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest crowds in on Haut-Madawaska: 48% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, more than the 42% within 25 km.
Shares of land within 5 and 25 km of populated blocks: burned at least once in 1986–2025 (CWFIS burned-area composite), forest fuel and grass (fire behaviour fuel types, 2026, 250 m grid).
Burn rate a year, towns in New Brunswick · highest of 60
Near-zero burning puts Haut-Madawaska with 15 of the 60 towns in New Brunswick, far below Tracadie at 0.28%.
Each bar: the yearly average share of land within 25 km of a town’s homes that burned, 1986–2025 (CWFIS); the seven highest towns of 2,500 people or more.
Haut-Madawaska shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
Bands of the yearly burn rate: low under 0.05%, moderate under 0.25%, high under 1%, very high 1% or more; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System: National Burned Area Composite 1986–2025 and fire behaviour fuel types (2026), Natural Resources Canada. Measured within 25 km and 5 km of each populated dissemination area; past fire, not a forecast.
A flood study covers Haut-Madawaska, from Service New Brunswick - GeoNB: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Haut-Madawaska: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Haut-Madawaska, Service New Brunswick - GeoNB’s from 2020, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inland Flood Mapping in New Brunswick and Updated Sea-Level Rise and Flooding Estimates for New Brunswick Coastal Sections 2020 | Service New Brunswick - GeoNB | 2020 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in New Brunswick: 93% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Haut-Madawaska is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Haut-Madawaska’s homes stand in a flood zone.
The inventory’s own caution (NRCan): “The Canada Flood Map (CFM) does not include every flood hazard map in Canada and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. It should not be relied upon as the official source of flood mapping information. Furthermore, if a map appears to be missing, this does not necessarily mean that the area has never been mapped. For the official version of a map, updated information, or confirmation of applicable regulations, please contact the local authority responsible for flood mapping.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Haut-Madawaska $0.054 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
1.8 times the typical $0.030: Haut-Madawaska’s $0.054 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in New Brunswick expects $0.036 a year; Haut-Madawaska expects $0.054, and St. Stephen $0.16.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More earthquake risk than most: only 30% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Haut-Madawaska.
Each column: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more in that range of yearly loss per $1,000 (NRCan, 2022).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Haut-Madawaska is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in Haut-Madawaska: 29% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Haut-Madawaska’s area, at 29%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Haut-Madawaska, 29% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 4.7% over 600, against a median of 20% in New Brunswick.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Haut-Madawaska is in the 20–30% band, which holds only 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 1.5% are higher.
Each bar: the share of Canada’s towns of 2,500 people or more whose survey area had that share of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
Neighbouring homes in Haut-Madawaska can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Region 4 health region
Where to get warnings in Haut-Madawaska
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Haut-Madawaska; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| Alert | What it means |
|---|---|
| Warning | Severe weather is happening or about to: act now. |
| Watch | Conditions favour severe weather: be ready. |
| Advisory | Weather that is less severe but could disrupt the day. |
| Special weather statement | Unusual weather worth knowing about. |
| Special air quality statement | Poor air, often wildfire smoke. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Haut-Madawaska, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Haut-Madawaska faces
What to do about the hazards Haut-Madawaska faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Test for three months in winter.
- Over 200 Bq/m³: fix it.
- Kits are cheap; pros test too.
- Never drive through floodwater.
- Move papers and medicines upstairs.
- Ask whether your street is mapped.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Haut-Madawaska.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Haut-Madawaska is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Haut-Madawaska, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Haut-Madawaska’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Haut-Madawaska
Does Haut-Madawaska flood?
There is flood mapping for Haut-Madawaska on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Haut-Madawaska?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Haut-Madawaska $0.054 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Haut-Madawaska at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Haut-Madawaska since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
How is Haut-Madawaska’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Haut-Madawaska’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Haut-Madawaska?
In Health Canada’s survey, 29% of 86 homes tested in Haut-Madawaska’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Seismic risk: Natural Resources Canada. Radon: Health Canada. Wildfire: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Flood studies: Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
Sources: NRCan, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model 2022 · Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes · CWFIS, National Burned Area Composite and FBP fuel types · NRCan, Canada Flood Map Inventory. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).