Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazard risk in Beaumont is higher than in 92% of Canadian towns
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Beaumont: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.15 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, 13% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Beaumont grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Beaumont’s hazards
For Beaumont, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Beaumont faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Beaumont grades D for hazard risk
The grade weighs Beaumont’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #484 of 507 in Quebec and #2,498 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Beaumont: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Beaumont’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Beaumont burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Nothing inside 5 km of Beaumont’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 8.6 km off.
Within 5 km of Beaumont, 11% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 16%.
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
To three decimals the burn rate around Beaumont is zero, as for 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec, while Mistissini reaches 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Beaumont is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Beaumont
Flood studies whose area touches Beaumont, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Beaumont, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Beaumont.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Beaumont.
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.”
Shaking is Beaumont’s costliest hazard: $0.15 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Beaumont loses $0.15, 4.9 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Quebec: Beaumont’s $0.15 against $0.14; La Pocatière reaches $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.
Beaumont sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 19% 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Beaumont.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
13% of homes tested around Beaumont are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
More homes than usual test high around Beaumont: 13% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. Beaumont doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Chaudiere-Appalaches health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Beaumont (13%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 0.6% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Beaumont is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are 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.
Neighbouring homes in Beaumont can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Beaumont
Alerts for Beaumont come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| 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. |
Evacuation orders for Beaumont come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Beaumont’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beaumont | Low | $0.15 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Laurent-de-l'Île-d'Orléans 1,659 · 4.3 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Charles-de-Bellechasse 2,739 · 8.0 km | Low | $0.13 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse 1,902 · 8.1 km | Low | $0.13 | 13% | None listed |
| Sainte-Pétronille 1,015 · 9.5 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Pierre-de-l'Île-d'Orléans 1,704 · 9.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| L'Ange-Gardien 4,106 · 13 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.8% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Beaumont has the most fire on record (low); Saint-Laurent-de-l'Île-d'Orléans follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Beaumont faces
What to do about the hazards Beaumont 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Beaumont’s included.
- 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 Beaumont sits in.
- 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 Beaumont floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Beaumont.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Beaumont
How is Beaumont’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Beaumont grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Beaumont?
About $0.15 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Beaumont.
Is Beaumont at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Beaumont since 1986 (last in 2022); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Beaumont flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Beaumont’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Beaumont?
Around Beaumont, 175 survey homes were tested and 13% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).