Photo: Johny-le-cowboy · CC BY-SA 3.0Alma’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 2.8% of area homes over the radon guideline
For Alma, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.22 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Alma grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Alma’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Alma: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Alma faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Alma: C+
Seismic risk and radon set Alma’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #107 of 507 in Quebec and #1,789 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 72 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Alma: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Alma’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Alma is 0.001%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Fire has stayed at least 6.9 km from Alma’s homes since 1986.
Within 5 km of Alma, 37% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 56%.
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 Quebec · highest of 513
Alma sits mid-table in Quebec: 136th of 513 towns, at 0.001% a year, well behind Mistissini (0.31%).
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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Alma stays low, with 92%.
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.
No flood study is listed for Alma
Flood studies whose area touches Alma, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Alma, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Alma.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Alma’s homes are at risk.
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.”
High seismic risk in Alma: $0.22 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 7.3 times the typical $0.030: Alma’s $0.22 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Alma, at $0.22, sits above the median of $0.14.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Only 7.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Alma.
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).
The model counts damage to Alma’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Alma: 2.8% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Alma’s area has fewer, 2.8%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Saguenay - Lac-Saint-Jean health region, Alma included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Alma’s area, at 2.8%, is below the median in Quebec (8.2%), though 1.4% 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.
Few tests over the guideline: Alma shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Alma can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Alma
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Alma; 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 Alma, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Alma’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alma | Low | $0.22 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Nazaire 2,167 · 6.7 km | Low | $0.21 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Bruno 2,935 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.24 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Gédéon 2,349 · 9.8 km | Low | $0.22 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Hébertville-Station 1,298 · 12 km | Low | $0.27 | 2.8% | None listed |
| L'Ascension-de-Notre-Seigneur 2,291 · 15 km | Low | $0.19 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Larouche 1,734 · 16 km | Low | $0.20 | 2.8% | None listed |
The fire record around Larouche is a touch heavier than Alma’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Alma faces
Practical steps for Alma’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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
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 Alma.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Alma’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Alma is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Alma’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Alma
How is Alma’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Alma C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Alma?
Expected earthquake damage in Alma comes to $0.22 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Alma at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Alma’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2023) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Alma?
The area’s survey found 2.8% of 72 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Alma.
Does Alma flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Alma, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
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).