Photo: Original uploader was Chris-13 at fr.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazard risk in Clermont is higher than in 87% of Canadian towns
Fire reaches the land around Clermont now and then: 3.9% within 25 km since 1986 (0.10% a year), below the high band. Seismic risk runs high: $0.37 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon around Clermont is ordinary for Canada: 8.8% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Clermont a grade of D; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Clermont’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Clermont: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Clermont faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Clermont grades D for hazard risk
For Clermont, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #435 of 507 in Quebec and #2,428 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
A moderate wildfire record for Clermont: 3.9% within 25 km burned, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Clermont’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Clermont is 0.10%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
The 5 km ring around Clermont’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 8.4 km out.
Within 5 km of Clermont, 65% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 84%.
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
Clermont ranks 3rd of the 513 towns in Quebec for burn rate, at 0.10% 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.
Moderate puts Clermont above most of Canada’s 2,610 towns, yet 2.1% rank high or very high and 5.4% share its band.
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 Clermont (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Clermont, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Clermont is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 1990; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malbaie | Gouvernement du Québec | 1990 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Clermont 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 Clermont’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 Clermont $0.37 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.
Roughly 12.2 times the typical $0.030: Clermont’s $0.37 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Clermont, at $0.37, sits above 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.
Clermont is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 4.7% rank 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).
The model counts damage to Clermont’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).
Radon about average around Clermont: 8.8% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Capitale-Nationale health region: radon tests
Clermont’s area, at 8.8%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Clermont, 8.8% of tests topped the guideline, close to the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 2.5% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Clermont, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Clermont as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Clermont
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Clermont; 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 Clermont come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Clermont’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clermont | Moderate | $0.37 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Saint-Aimé-des-Lacs 1,169 · 6.9 km | Moderate | $0.29 | 8.8% | None listed |
| La Malbaie 8,293 · 7.2 km | Moderate | $0.35 | 8.8% | Yes |
The fire record around Saint-Aimé-des-Lacs is a touch heavier than Clermont’s, but the band is the same: moderate (here moderate).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Clermont faces
Practical steps for Clermont’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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.
- 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.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Clermont without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Clermont’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Clermont until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Clermont’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Clermont
Does Clermont flood?
A flood study covers Clermont on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Clermont at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Clermont’s moderate band (3.9% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2000) is short of the level that counts.
How is Clermont’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Clermont’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Clermont?
About $0.37 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Clermont.
Is radon a problem in Clermont?
The area’s survey found 8.8% of 160 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Clermont.
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).