Photo: Nichole Ouellette · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Batiscan: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Batiscan, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 0% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Batiscan grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Batiscan’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Batiscan: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Batiscan faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Batiscan grades B+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Batiscan, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Only 58 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Batiscan has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Batiscan’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Batiscan burns at 0.001% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Fire has stayed at least 11 km from Batiscan’s homes since 1986.
About as much forest grows next to Batiscan’s homes (29% within 5 km) as across 25 km (32%).
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
In the upper half in Quebec but far from Mistissini (0.31%): Batiscan ranks 136th of 514, at 0.001% a year.
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.
Some fire is mapped around Batiscan, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
A flood study covers Batiscan, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Batiscan, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 1996 study by Gouvernement du Québec covers Batiscan, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varennes-Grondines | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Batiscan 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.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Batiscan’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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.
High seismic risk in Batiscan: $0.12 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Batiscan loses $0.12, 3.9 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Batiscan at $0.12 beside a median in Quebec of $0.14, with La Pocatière on top 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.
24% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Batiscan, which places it in the upper third.
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 Batiscan’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).
Radon runs low around Batiscan: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
Fewer homes than usual test high around Batiscan: 0% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Batiscan’s area, at 0%, is below 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.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Batiscan; 63% sit higher.
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 share describes the area, not a house: in Batiscan as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Batiscan
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Batiscan; 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. |
For fires near Batiscan, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Batiscan’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batiscan | Low | $0.12 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets 1,172 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | None listed |
| Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade 2,036 · 10 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | None listed |
| Sainte-Geneviève-de-Batiscan 1,137 · 11 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Champlain 1,957 · 12 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Stanislas 1,040 · 17 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Narcisse 1,848 · 19 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
The fire record around Sainte-Geneviève-de-Batiscan is a touch heavier than Batiscan’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 Batiscan faces
What to do about the hazards Batiscan 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Batiscan’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Batiscan until then.
- 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 Batiscan’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Batiscan without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Batiscan
Does Batiscan flood?
A flood study covers Batiscan on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Batiscan?
About $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Batiscan.
Is radon a problem in Batiscan?
Around Batiscan, 58 survey homes were tested and 0% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Batiscan’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Batiscan’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Batiscan at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Batiscan since 1986 (last in 2024); 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).