Photo: Red Castle · CC BY-SA 4.0Around Lamèque, 40% of tested homes have radon above the guideline
Burn scars are few around Lamèque, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.005% a year). Earthquake risk in Lamèque is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.039 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Lamèque grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Lamèque’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lamèque: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lamèque faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Lamèque: D
For Lamèque, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Lamèque: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Past fire around Lamèque’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.005% of the land a year, Lamèque’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Near or far, forest fuel covers a similar share around Lamèque: 60% within 5 km and 63% 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 61
Lamèque sits mid-table in New Brunswick: 24th of 61 towns, at 0.005% a year, well behind Tracadie (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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Lamèque burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB has mapped flooding for Lamèque (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Lamèque: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Lamèque the inventory points to Service New Brunswick - GeoNB’s 2020 study, whose map is the one to check.
| 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
Lamèque is one of the 93% of towns in New Brunswick with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Lamèque.
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 Lamèque $0.039 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.039 per $1,000, Lamèque’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.3 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in New Brunswick is $0.036; Lamèque, at $0.039, is right beside it, and St. Stephen tops the list at $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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Lamèque (45%).
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Lamèque’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Lamèque: 40% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Region 6 health region
Lamèque’s survey area reads 40% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Lamèque’s area, at 40%, is above the median in New Brunswick (20%), and 17% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Lamèque is in the top band, 30% or more, with just 1.5% of Canada’s towns.
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.
One home in Lamèque can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Lamèque
Alerts for Lamèque come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| 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. |
Evacuation orders for Lamèque come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Lamèque
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamèque | Low | $0.039 | 40% | Yes |
| Shippagan 4,721 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.036 | 40% | Yes |
| Shippagan 3,073 · 10 km | Low | $0.047 | 40% | Yes |
| Bas-Caraquet 1,391 · 15 km | Low | $0.038 | 40% | Yes |
| Caraquet 1,263 · 17 km | Low | $0.043 | 40% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Lamèque (low); Shippagan comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Lamèque faces
Practical steps for Lamèque’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Lamèque sits in.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Lamèque floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Lamèque’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Lamèque’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lamèque
Is Lamèque at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Lamèque’s band is low, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2005), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Lamèque flood?
Lamèque’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How is Lamèque’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Lamèque’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Lamèque?
40% of the 115 homes Health Canada tested around Lamèque topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lamèque?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Lamèque $0.039 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).