Photo: Mario Hains · CC BY-SA 3.0Ascot Corner is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Ville de Sherbrooke
Around Ascot Corner, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Earthquake risk in Ascot Corner is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.044 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Radon is about average around Ascot Corner: 7.3% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Ascot Corner a grade of B, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Ascot Corner’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Ascot Corner: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Ascot Corner faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Ascot Corner: B
Earthquake risk and radon make Ascot Corner’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #67 of 507 in Quebec and #1,456 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 55 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 Ascot Corner: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Ascot Corner’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.001% of the land around Ascot Corner each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Ascot Corner’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 13 km away.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Ascot Corner: 38% within 5 km, 40% 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
At 0.001% a year, Ascot Corner ranks 136th of the 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini leads 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Ascot Corner 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.
Flooding around Ascot Corner is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Ville de Sherbrooke
Flood studies whose area touches Ascot Corner, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Ville de Sherbrooke and others have studied flooding in areas that include Ascot Corner: 2 studies, the latest from 2010.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sherbrooke Zones inondables | Ville de Sherbrooke | 2010 | final |
| Ascot-Corner | Gouvernement du Québec | 1992 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Ascot Corner apart in Quebec, where 45% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
No single decade dominates: 2 studies for Ascot Corner between the 1990s and the 2010s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Ascot Corner.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Ascot Corner.
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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Ascot Corner: $0.044 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.
Ascot Corner’s $0.044 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (1.5 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Ascot Corner’s $0.044 sits under the median in Quebec, $0.14, and well under La Pocatière’s $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.
Ascot Corner sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 32% are higher.
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 loss is to Ascot Corner’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Ascot Corner: 7.3% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of Ascot Corner reads 7.3%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ascot Corner’s area, at 7.3%, is close to the median in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Ascot Corner, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Ascot Corner only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Estrie health region)
Weather and fire alerts for Ascot Corner
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Ascot Corner; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Ascot Corner come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Ascot Corner’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascot Corner | Low | $0.044 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Stoke 3,272 · 4.0 km | Low | $0.039 | 7.3% | Yes |
| East Angus 4,261 · 11 km | Low | $0.045 | 7.3% | None listed |
| Cookshire-Eaton 5,491 · 12 km | Low | $0.040 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Sherbrooke 184,135 · 12 km | Low | $0.043 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Westbury 1,207 · 12 km | Low | $0.051 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Hatley 2,512 · 17 km | Low | $0.046 | 7.3% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Ascot Corner (low), with Stoke next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Ascot Corner faces
Practical steps for Ascot Corner’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
- 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 Ascot Corner’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Ascot Corner’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Ascot Corner.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Ascot Corner takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Ascot Corner
Does Ascot Corner flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Ascot Corner; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Ascot Corner?
Expected earthquake damage in Ascot Corner comes to $0.044 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Ascot Corner at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Ascot Corner’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2015), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Ascot Corner?
7.3% of the 55 homes Health Canada tested around Ascot Corner topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Ascot Corner’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Ascot Corner’s Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).