Photo: SDCJ · Public domainJoliette is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by MRC Joliette
Little of the land around Joliette has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.17 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is lower than usual: 3.9% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Joliette a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Joliette’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Joliette: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Joliette faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Joliette grades C+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Joliette’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #100 of 507 in Quebec and #1,769 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 77 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Joliette has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Joliette’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.001% a year keeps Joliette in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Homes in Joliette sit on open or built-up ground (2% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 10%.
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
At 0.001% a year, Joliette ranks 136th of the 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini leads at 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.
Joliette 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.
Joliette is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by MRC Joliette
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Joliette: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2016 study by MRC Joliette covers Joliette, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joliette-Notre-Dame-des-Prairies-Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes-St-Paul-St-Thomas-St-Charles-Borromée | MRC Joliette | 2016 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Joliette is one of the 45% of towns in Quebec with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
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 Joliette.
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.
Shaking is Joliette’s costliest hazard: $0.17 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 5.7 times the typical $0.030: Joliette’s $0.17 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Quebec: Joliette’s $0.17 against $0.14; 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 14% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Joliette.
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 Joliette’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).
3.9% of homes tested around Joliette are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Joliette’s survey area reads 3.9% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Joliette (3.9%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Joliette with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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 Joliette as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Lanaudiere health region
Weather and fire alerts for Joliette
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Joliette; 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 Joliette come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Joliette
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joliette | Low | $0.17 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Paul 7,208 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.17 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Charles-Borromée 16,904 · 3.6 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Notre-Dame-des-Prairies 9,622 · 3.9 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Crabtree 4,237 · 6.3 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Thomas 3,477 · 7.2 km | Low | $0.15 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes 3,328 · 8.1 km | Low | $0.13 | 3.9% | Yes |
Joliette’s low band tops its neighbours; Saint-Paul is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Joliette faces
Practical steps for Joliette’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. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Joliette’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Joliette’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Joliette sits in.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Joliette floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Joliette
How is Joliette’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Joliette C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Joliette at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Joliette’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Joliette?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Joliette’s buildings lose $0.17 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Joliette flood?
Joliette’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Joliette?
The area’s survey found 3.9% of 77 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Joliette.
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).