Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0A flood study covers Amos: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
Wildfire is rare near Amos: 0.3% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.006% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Amos as in most places, at $0.021 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, just 4.3% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Amos grades A− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Amos’s hazards
For Amos, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Amos faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Amos grades A− for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Amos with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #7 of 507 in Quebec and #635 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Only 69 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Amos: 0.3% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Amos’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.006% of the land near Amos burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
There is forest near Amos’ homes (42% within 5 km) and more of it further out (56% 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 Quebec · highest of 513
The land around Amos burns at 0.006% a year, the 27th highest rate of 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops it at 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Amos 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.
Amos is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Amos, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Amos is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 2004; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amos | Gouvernement du Québec | 2004 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Amos is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Amos.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Amos: $0.021 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
With $0.021 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Amos is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Amos expects less, $0.021, and La Pocatière the most, $0.48.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Middle of the pack: 63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Amos.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Amos.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
4.3% of homes tested around Amos are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Amos’ area, at 4.3%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Amos (4.3%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Amos is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Amos, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Abitibi-Temiscamingue health region
Where to get warnings in Amos
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Amos; 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 Amos, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Amos
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amos | Low | $0.021 | 4.3% | Yes |
| Saint-Félix-de-Dalquier 1,046 · 10 km | Low | $0.022 | 4.3% | None listed |
| Trécesson 1,240 · 12 km | Low | $0.022 | 4.3% | None listed |
Saint-Félix-de-Dalquier (low) has the heaviest fire record of Amos’ neighbours, and Amos (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Amos faces
What to do about the hazards Amos 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. 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 Amos floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Amos’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Amos, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Amos sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Amos
Does Amos flood?
Amos’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How big is the earthquake risk in Amos?
Expected earthquake damage in Amos comes to $0.021 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Amos’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Amos’ Hazard risk grade is A−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Amos?
Around Amos, 69 survey homes were tested and 4.3% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Amos at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.3% of the land around Amos since 1986 (last in 2023); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
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).