Photo: Jfecteau20 · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Berthierville: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
Little of the land around Berthierville has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.14 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, just 3.9% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Berthierville a grade of B−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Berthierville’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Berthierville: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Berthierville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Berthierville: B−
The grade weighs Berthierville’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: #87 of 507 in Quebec and #1,614 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 77 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.
Few fires near Berthierville: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Berthierville’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Berthierville burns at 0.001% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Close to Berthierville there is little to burn (3% forest fuel within 5 km), but 10% of the land within 25 km is forest.
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, Berthierville 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Berthierville 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 Berthierville (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Berthierville: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Berthierville, Gouvernement du Québec’s from 1996, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varennes-Grondines | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Berthierville among them, below the 58% across Canada.
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 Berthierville’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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Berthierville $0.14 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Berthierville loses $0.14, 4.6 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Quebec: Berthierville’s $0.14 sits by the median of $0.14, while 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.
20% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Berthierville, 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 Berthierville’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).
3.9% of homes tested around Berthierville are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Lanaudiere health region
Berthierville’s area, at 3.9%, 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
Against the typical town in Quebec (8.2%), the area around Berthierville has fewer high tests: 3.9%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Berthierville 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.
The survey sampled homes around Berthierville; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Berthierville
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Berthierville; 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 Berthierville, 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 Berthierville’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berthierville | Low | $0.14 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Sainte-Geneviève-de-Berthier 2,298 · 4.1 km | Low | $0.14 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola 2,170 · 4.7 km | Low | $0.11 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Joseph-de-Sorel 1,602 · 6.0 km | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sorel-Tracy 36,537 · 7.8 km | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Anne-de-Sorel 2,770 · 11 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Cuthbert 1,865 · 11 km | Low | $0.12 | 3.9% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Berthierville (low); Sainte-Geneviève-de-Berthier comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Berthierville faces
What to do about the hazards Berthierville 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
- 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 Berthierville’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Berthierville without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Berthierville’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 Berthierville until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Berthierville
How is Berthierville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Berthierville B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Berthierville flood?
A flood study covers Berthierville on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Berthierville at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Berthierville since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Berthierville?
Around Berthierville, 77 survey homes were tested and 3.9% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Berthierville?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Berthierville’s buildings lose $0.14 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).