Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for Dégelis: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Wildfire barely registers for Dégelis, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.060 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is higher than usual: 14% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Dégelis a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Dégelis’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Dégelis: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Dégelis faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Dégelis: C−
Earthquake risk and radon make Dégelis’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #416 of 507 in Quebec and #2,402 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Dégelis: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Dégelis’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.001% of the land near Dégelis burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Dégelis’ homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 19 km away.
44% of the land within 5 km of Dégelis is forest fuel, close to the 46% 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 513
In the upper half in Quebec but far from Mistissini (0.31%): Dégelis ranks 136th of 513, at 0.001% a year.
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.
Dégelis is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Dégelis (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Dégelis: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2005 study by Gouvernement du Québec covers Dégelis, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dégelis | Gouvernement du Québec | 2005 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Dégelis has one.
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 Dégelis’ 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Dégelis $0.060 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Dégelis’ $0.060 is about 2 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
At $0.060, Dégelis is below the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière is highest 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.
29% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Dégelis, which places it in the upper third.
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 Dégelis’ 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).
Test for radon in Dégelis: 14% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
More homes than usual test high around Dégelis: 14% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Bas-Saint-Laurent health region, with Dégelis one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Dégelis’ area, at 14%, is above the median in Quebec (8.2%), and 1.8% 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.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Dégelis, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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 survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Dégelis can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Dégelis
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Dégelis; 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 Dégelis come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Dégelis faces
Practical steps for Dégelis’ 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.
- 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
- 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 Dégelis.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Dégelis takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Dégelis’ figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Dégelis’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Dégelis
Is radon a problem in Dégelis?
14% of the 171 homes Health Canada tested around Dégelis topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Dégelis flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Dégelis; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Dégelis’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Dégelis grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Dégelis?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Dégelis $0.060 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Dégelis at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Dégelis’ band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 1999), so wildfire doesn’t change its 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).