Photo: Gordalmighty · CC BY-SA 3.0Barraute is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Burn scars are few around Barraute, with 0.3% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.008% a year). Seismic risk in Barraute sits near the middle: $0.024 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 4.3% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Barraute grades A− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Barraute’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Barraute: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Barraute faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Barraute: A−
Two inputs always count for Barraute, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 69 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 Barraute: 0.3% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.3% within 5 km
Past fire around Barraute’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.008% a year keeps Barraute in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
There is forest near Barraute’s homes (47% within 5 km) and more of it further out (67% 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 514
The land around Barraute burns at 0.008% a year, the 21st highest rate of 514 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Barraute among them, though its rate is above zero; 7.5% rank higher.
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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Barraute (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Barraute: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Barraute is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 2014; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barraute | Gouvernement du Québec | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Barraute 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Barraute’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Barraute $0.024 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
With $0.024 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Barraute is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.024, Barraute is below the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière is highest at $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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Barraute (54%).
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 Barraute’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 low around Barraute: 4.3% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Barraute’s area, at 4.3%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Barraute than in most towns in Quebec: 4.3% against 8.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Barraute, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see 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.
The survey sampled homes around Barraute; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Abitibi-Temiscamingue health region)
Weather and fire alerts for Barraute
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Barraute; 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 Barraute, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Barraute faces
What to do about the hazards Barraute 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. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Barraute.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Barraute takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Barraute’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 Barraute’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Barraute
How big is the earthquake risk in Barraute?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Barraute’s buildings lose $0.024 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Barraute?
Around Barraute, 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 Barraute at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.3% of the land around Barraute since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Barraute flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Barraute; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Barraute’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Barraute A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).