Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 4.0Huntingdon is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Burn scars are few around Huntingdon, 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 $0.20 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon around Huntingdon is ordinary for Canada: 8.2% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Huntingdon a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Huntingdon’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Huntingdon: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Huntingdon faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Huntingdon grades C− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Huntingdon’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #372 of 507 in Quebec and #2,347 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.
Wildfire is rare near Huntingdon: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Huntingdon’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Huntingdon’s 0.002% is in the low band.
Huntingdon’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 11 km away.
Little near Huntingdon’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 1.7% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 3% 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
Huntingdon ranks 35th of the 513 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Huntingdon 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Huntingdon (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Huntingdon, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 1996 study by Gouvernement du Québec covers Huntingdon, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Huntingdon | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Huntingdon has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Huntingdon.
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 Huntingdon $0.20 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 6.7 times the typical $0.030: Huntingdon’s $0.20 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year; Huntingdon 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.
11% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Huntingdon, 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Huntingdon’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 Huntingdon: 8.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Around Huntingdon, 8.2% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Quebec has 8.2% over 200 Bq/m³; Huntingdon’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.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Huntingdon, 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.
One home in Huntingdon 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). · Radon tests published for the Monteregie health region, not by town
Weather and fire alerts for Huntingdon
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Huntingdon; 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. |
For fires near Huntingdon, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Huntingdon’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Huntingdon | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Godmanchester 1,590 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Hinchinbrooke 2,350 · 9.3 km | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Barbe 1,993 · 11 km | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka 2,162 · 12 km | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Ormstown 4,259 · 14 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Anicet 2,854 · 17 km | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | None listed |
Nowhere around Huntingdon burns more: Godmanchester, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Huntingdon faces
Practical steps for Huntingdon’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. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Huntingdon’s.
- 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 Huntingdon until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Huntingdon’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Huntingdon without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Huntingdon
Is radon a problem in Huntingdon?
The area’s survey found 8.2% of 110 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Huntingdon.
How big is the earthquake risk in Huntingdon?
About $0.20 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Huntingdon.
How is Huntingdon’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Huntingdon grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Huntingdon flood?
A flood study covers Huntingdon on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Huntingdon at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Huntingdon’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
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).