Photo: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazards in Charette: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 0% of tested homes
Little of the land around Charette has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.002% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.10 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Charette a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Charette’s hazards
For Charette, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Charette faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Charette grades A− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Charette’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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.
Little of the land around Charette has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Charette’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Charette’s 0.002% is in the low band.
Fire has stayed at least 12 km from Charette’s homes since 1986.
Forest thickens with distance from Charette: 22% of the land within 5 km, 29% within 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 514
At 0.002% a year, Charette is near the top in Quebec: 35th of 514, behind Mistissini (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.
Some fire is mapped around Charette, 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.
No flood study is listed for Charette
Flood studies whose area touches Charette, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Charette, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Charette has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Charette’s homes are at risk.
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 Charette’s costliest hazard: $0.10 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; Charette loses $0.10, 3.4 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Charette, at $0.10, 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Charette.
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 Charette.
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 Charette: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Charette’s area, at 0%, 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
Radon runs lower around Charette than in most towns in Quebec: 0% against 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 Charette; 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.
Whatever Charette’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). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
Where to get warnings in Charette
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Charette; 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 Charette, 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 Charette’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charette | Low | $0.10 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Élie-de-Caxton 2,062 · 4.5 km | Low | $0.076 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Boniface 5,405 · 8.0 km | Low | $0.090 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Barnabé 1,234 · 9.3 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Paulin 1,659 · 9.3 km | Low | $0.086 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Étienne-des-Grès 4,675 · 10.0 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Mathieu-du-Parc 1,598 · 17 km | Low | $0.053 | 0% | Yes |
Saint-Mathieu-du-Parc burns a little more than Charette, 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 Charette faces
What to do about the hazards Charette 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. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Charette’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Charette.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Charette, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Charette takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Charette
How big is the earthquake risk in Charette?
Expected earthquake damage in Charette comes to $0.10 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Charette?
Around Charette, 58 survey homes were tested and 0% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Charette at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Charette since 1986 (last in 2020); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Charette’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Charette’s Hazard risk grade is A−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Charette flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Charette’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
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).