![Rue principale à Champlain . - [1930]](https://images.townratings.com/ca/town_images/52437220/52a3ce87bff3c963eb29.jpg)
Photo: Unknown Unknown · Public domainFlood mapping exists for Champlain: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Wildfire is rare near Champlain: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.002% 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%. Champlain grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Champlain’s hazards
For Champlain, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Champlain faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Champlain: B+
Earthquake risk and radon make Champlain’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 58 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Champlain: 0.2% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Champlain’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.002% of the land a year, Champlain’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
About as much forest grows next to Champlain’s homes (30% within 5 km) as across 25 km (27%).
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
Champlain ranks 35th of the 514 towns in Quebec for burn rate, at 0.002% a year; Mistissini leads with 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Champlain reads low, with 92% of them; only 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.
Champlain is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Champlain, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 1996 study by Gouvernement du Québec covers Champlain, 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 Champlain 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Champlain.
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.
Shaking is Champlain’s costliest hazard: $0.12 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.
Champlain’s $0.12 is about 3.9 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Quebec is $0.14; Champlain, at $0.12, is right beside it, and La Pocatière tops the list 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 24% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Champlain.
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 Champlain.
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 Champlain: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A lower share than most: 0% of tested homes around Champlain, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Champlain shares its radon tests numbers with the rest of the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Champlain (0%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Champlain with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
Whatever Champlain’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Champlain
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Champlain; 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 Champlain, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Champlain
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champlain | Low | $0.12 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Maurice 3,804 · 12 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Batiscan 1,006 · 12 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | Yes |
| Sainte-Geneviève-de-Batiscan 1,137 · 12 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets 1,172 · 15 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | None listed |
| Bécancour 14,943 · 15 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Narcisse 1,848 · 16 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
Nowhere around Champlain burns more: Saint-Maurice, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Champlain faces
Practical steps for Champlain’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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
- 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 Champlain.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Champlain takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Champlain’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Champlain, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Champlain
How big is the earthquake risk in Champlain?
About $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Champlain.
How is Champlain’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Champlain grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Champlain at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Champlain’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2024), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Champlain?
0% of the 58 homes Health Canada tested around Champlain topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Champlain flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Champlain; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in 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).