Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Hinchinbrooke: 3 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
Burn scars are few around Hinchinbrooke, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.002% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.17 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is about average around Hinchinbrooke: 8.2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hinchinbrooke grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Hinchinbrooke’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Hinchinbrooke: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Hinchinbrooke faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hinchinbrooke grades C− for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Hinchinbrooke, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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.
Wildfire is rare near Hinchinbrooke: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Hinchinbrooke’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Hinchinbrooke burns at 0.002% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Hinchinbrooke’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 6.8 km away.
With 3% forest fuel within 5 km and 3.4% within 25 km, the land around Hinchinbrooke 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
At 0.002% a year, Hinchinbrooke 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Hinchinbrooke among them, though its rate is above zero; 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.
3 flood studies cover Hinchinbrooke, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Hinchinbrooke: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The newest of 3 studies covering Hinchinbrooke is Gouvernement du Québec’s, from 2009; open its map to see the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hinchinbrooke-Athelstan | Gouvernement du Québec | 2009 | final |
| Hinchinbrooke | Gouvernement du Québec | 2006 | final |
| Huntingdon | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Hinchinbrooke 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.
The 2000s brought the most flood studies for Hinchinbrooke (2 of 3), the first dating from the 1990s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Hinchinbrooke.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Hinchinbrooke floods.
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 Hinchinbrooke $0.17 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Hinchinbrooke loses $0.17, 5.8 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Hinchinbrooke’s $0.17 tops the median in Quebec, $0.14, though La Pocatière reaches $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.
Hinchinbrooke sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 14% 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Hinchinbrooke’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
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 Hinchinbrooke: 8.2% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Monteregie health region: radon tests
Near the middle for radon: Hinchinbrooke’s area 8.2%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Quebec has 8.2% over 200 Bq/m³; Hinchinbrooke’s area has 8.2%, much the same.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Hinchinbrooke with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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.
One home in Hinchinbrooke can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Hinchinbrooke
Alerts for Hinchinbrooke 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 Hinchinbrooke 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)
How Hinchinbrooke’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hinchinbrooke | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Huntingdon 3,001 · 9.3 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Godmanchester 1,590 · 12 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Ormstown 4,259 · 14 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Franklin 1,754 · 16 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | None listed |
Hinchinbrooke’s low band tops its neighbours; Huntingdon is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Hinchinbrooke faces
What to do about the hazards Hinchinbrooke 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?
- 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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Hinchinbrooke.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Hinchinbrooke’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Hinchinbrooke’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Hinchinbrooke is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Hinchinbrooke
How is Hinchinbrooke’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Hinchinbrooke C−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Hinchinbrooke flood?
There is flood mapping for Hinchinbrooke on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Hinchinbrooke?
Around Hinchinbrooke, 110 survey homes were tested and 8.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Hinchinbrooke?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Hinchinbrooke’s buildings lose $0.17 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Hinchinbrooke at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Hinchinbrooke since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the 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).