Photo: Stéphane Duquesne · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for La Conception: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
The national fire record shows next to nothing around La Conception, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.001% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.070 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 10% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. La Conception grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about La Conception’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for La Conception: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What La Conception faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
La Conception grades C for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set La Conception’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 78 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.
Wildfire is rare near La Conception: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around La Conception’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.001% of the land around La Conception each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
La Conception’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 7.4 km away.
There is forest near La Conception’s homes (21% within 5 km) and more of it further out (29% 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 514
In the upper half in Quebec but far from Mistissini (0.31%): La Conception ranks 136th of 514, 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; La Conception stays low, with 92%.
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 La Conception (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for La Conception: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching La Conception is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 2005; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conception | Gouvernement du Québec | 2005 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets La Conception apart in Quebec, where 45% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
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 La Conception’s 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.
Shaking is La Conception’s costliest hazard: $0.070 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 2.3 times the typical $0.030: La Conception’s $0.070 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; La Conception expects less, $0.070, and La Pocatière the most, $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: 28% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than La Conception.
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 La Conception’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).
10% of homes tested around La Conception are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Laurentides health region: radon tests
La Conception’s area, at 10%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around La Conception than in most towns in Quebec: 10% over the guideline (8.2% is typical), 1.3% over 600.
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 La Conception, 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in La Conception only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for La Conception
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for La Conception; 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 La Conception, 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)
Hazards in the places around La Conception
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Conception | Low | $0.070 | 10% | Yes |
| Brébeuf 1,012 · 8.2 km | Low | $0.074 | 10% | Yes |
| Mont-Tremblant 11,879 · 10 km | Low | $0.065 | 10% | Yes |
| Amherst 1,703 · 12 km | Low | $0.077 | 10% | Yes |
| Labelle 2,861 · 13 km | Low | $0.071 | 10% | Yes |
La Conception’s low band tops its neighbours; Brébeuf is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what La Conception faces
Practical steps for La Conception’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.
- 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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for La Conception is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 La Conception’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of La Conception’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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for La Conception.
Questions about flooding and hazards in La Conception
Is La Conception at risk of wildfire?
Some, but La Conception’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
Does La Conception flood?
There is flood mapping for La Conception on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in La Conception?
The area’s survey found 10% of 78 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in La Conception.
How is La Conception’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
La Conception’s Hazard risk grade is C, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in La Conception?
In NRCan’s seismic model, La Conception’s buildings lose $0.070 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).