Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for Godmanchester: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Little of the land around Godmanchester has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.002% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.20 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is about average around Godmanchester: 8.2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Godmanchester a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Godmanchester’s hazards
For Godmanchester, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Godmanchester faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Godmanchester grades C− for hazard risk
For Godmanchester, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Godmanchester: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Godmanchester’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Godmanchester burns at 0.002% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Godmanchester’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 8.2 km away.
With 3.2% forest fuel within 5 km and 2.7% within 25 km, the land around Godmanchester gives a fire little to burn.
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
Godmanchester 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Godmanchester burns, but slower than in the 7.5% 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.
A flood study covers Godmanchester, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Godmanchester: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Gouvernement du Québec holds the flood mapping that covers Godmanchester (1996), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Huntingdon | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Godmanchester 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 studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Godmanchester.
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.
High seismic risk in Godmanchester: $0.20 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Godmanchester’s $0.20 is about 6.7 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 typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year; Godmanchester expects $0.20, and La Pocatière $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: 12% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Godmanchester.
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 Godmanchester.
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 Godmanchester: 8.2% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Monteregie health region: radon tests
Godmanchester’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.2% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Godmanchester is ordinary for towns in Quebec: 8.2%, beside a median of 8.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Godmanchester, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Godmanchester’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Godmanchester
Alerts for Godmanchester 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Godmanchester are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Godmanchester
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Godmanchester | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Huntingdon 3,001 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Barbe 1,993 · 8.7 km | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka 2,162 · 12 km | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Hinchinbrooke 2,350 · 12 km | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Anicet 2,854 · 14 km | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Ormstown 4,259 · 16 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Huntingdon (low), still no more than Godmanchester (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Godmanchester faces
Practical steps for Godmanchester’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Godmanchester’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 Godmanchester.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Godmanchester, 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, Godmanchester takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Godmanchester
Does Godmanchester flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Godmanchester; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is Godmanchester at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Godmanchester’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 Godmanchester?
8.2% of the 110 homes Health Canada tested around Godmanchester topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Godmanchester’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Godmanchester’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Godmanchester?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Godmanchester’s buildings lose $0.20 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).