Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0High radon around Carleton-sur-Mer: 25% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Around Carleton-sur-Mer, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Carleton-sur-Mer as in most places, at $0.033 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Carleton-sur-Mer a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Carleton-sur-Mer’s hazards
For Carleton-sur-Mer, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Carleton-sur-Mer faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Carleton-sur-Mer grades C− for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Carleton-sur-Mer, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #414 of 507 in Quebec and #2,400 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 Carleton-sur-Mer: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Carleton-sur-Mer’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Carleton-sur-Mer burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Carleton-sur-Mer’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 7.7 km away.
Forest fuel covers 60% of the land close to Carleton-sur-Mer and 70% across 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
Mistissini has the highest burn rate in Quebec, 0.31% a year; around Carleton-sur-Mer, as around 144 of the 513 towns, it rounds to zero.
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.
Carleton-sur-Mer shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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 Carleton-sur-Mer (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Carleton-sur-Mer, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Carleton-sur-Mer is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 1995; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nouvelle | Gouvernement du Québec | 1995 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Carleton-sur-Mer has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Carleton-sur-Mer.
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 Carleton-sur-Mer: $0.033 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.
1.1 times the typical $0.030: Carleton-sur-Mer’s $0.033 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Carleton-sur-Mer, at $0.033, is below the median of $0.14.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Middle of the pack: 48% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Carleton-sur-Mer.
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 Carleton-sur-Mer.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in Carleton-sur-Mer: 25% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Gaspesie - Iles-de-la-Madeleine health region
Carleton-sur-Mer’s survey area reads 25% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Carleton-sur-Mer’s area, at 25%, is above the median in Quebec (8.2%), and 3.4% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Carleton-sur-Mer is in the 20–30% band, which holds only 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 1.5% 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.
A low area share in Carleton-sur-Mer doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Carleton-sur-Mer
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Carleton-sur-Mer; 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 Carleton-sur-Mer come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Carleton-sur-Mer
The same four hazards for the places next door.
Nouvelle burns a little more than Carleton-sur-Mer, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Carleton-sur-Mer faces
What to do about the hazards Carleton-sur-Mer 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Carleton-sur-Mer’s included.
- 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 Carleton-sur-Mer until then.
- 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 Carleton-sur-Mer.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Carleton-sur-Mer without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Carleton-sur-Mer
How is Carleton-sur-Mer’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Carleton-sur-Mer grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Carleton-sur-Mer at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Carleton-sur-Mer has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Carleton-sur-Mer flood?
A flood study covers Carleton-sur-Mer 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 Carleton-sur-Mer?
About $0.033 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Carleton-sur-Mer.
Is radon a problem in Carleton-sur-Mer?
In Health Canada’s survey, 25% of 174 homes tested in Carleton-sur-Mer’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).