Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Hazards in Chute-aux-Outardes: wildfire moderate, radon over the guideline in 4.7% of tested homes
Fire reaches the land around Chute-aux-Outardes now and then: 6% within 25 km since 1986 (0.15% a year), below the high band. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.078 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Chute-aux-Outardes a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Chute-aux-Outardes’s hazards
For Chute-aux-Outardes, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Chute-aux-Outardes faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Chute-aux-Outardes: B
The grade weighs Chute-aux-Outardes’ seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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.
A moderate wildfire record for Chute-aux-Outardes: 6% within 25 km burned, 0.2% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Chute-aux-Outardes’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Chute-aux-Outardes is 0.15%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
Forest thickens with distance from Chute-aux-Outardes: 64% of the land within 5 km, 82% 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
Mistissini burns fastest in Quebec at 0.31% a year; Chute-aux-Outardes, at 0.15%, ranks 3rd of 514.
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.
Only 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns share the moderate band with Chute-aux-Outardes, and 2.1% sit above it.
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 Chute-aux-Outardes
Flood studies whose area touches Chute-aux-Outardes, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Chute-aux-Outardes, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Chute-aux-Outardes is not among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Chute-aux-Outardes to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Chute-aux-Outardes $0.078 per $1,000 a year
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; Chute-aux-Outardes loses $0.078, 2.6 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Chute-aux-Outardes expects less, $0.078, and La Pocatière the most, $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.
Chute-aux-Outardes sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 28% 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 Chute-aux-Outardes.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Chute-aux-Outardes: 4.7% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Cote-Nord health region
4.7% of tested homes around Chute-aux-Outardes were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Chute-aux-Outardes’ area, at 4.7%, is below the median in Quebec (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 Chute-aux-Outardes; 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 Chute-aux-Outardes’ 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 Chute-aux-Outardes
Alerts for Chute-aux-Outardes 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 Chute-aux-Outardes 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)
Hazards in the places around Chute-aux-Outardes
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chute-aux-Outardes | Moderate | $0.078 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Pointe-aux-Outardes 1,447 · 2.8 km | Moderate | $0.10 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Ragueneau 1,287 · 6.8 km | High | $0.094 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Pointe-Lebel 1,800 · 8.8 km | Low | $0.11 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Baie-Comeau 20,660 · 17 km | Low | $0.079 | 4.7% | None listed |
Ragueneau has the most fire around it, a high band against Chute-aux-Outardes’ moderate.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Chute-aux-Outardes faces
What to do about the hazards Chute-aux-Outardes faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Chute-aux-Outardes.
- 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 Chute-aux-Outardes until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Chute-aux-Outardes without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Chute-aux-Outardes’ included.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Chute-aux-Outardes
Is radon a problem in Chute-aux-Outardes?
Around Chute-aux-Outardes, 107 survey homes were tested and 4.7% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Chute-aux-Outardes?
Expected earthquake damage in Chute-aux-Outardes comes to $0.078 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Chute-aux-Outardes at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 6% of the land around Chute-aux-Outardes since 1986 (last in 2024); at moderate, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Chute-aux-Outardes flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Chute-aux-Outardes’ flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How is Chute-aux-Outardes’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Chute-aux-Outardes’ Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).