Photo: Bouchecl · CC BY-SA 3.0La Tuque faces fewer hazards than 87% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is a moderate presence around La Tuque: 3.5% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.09% a year, short of the band that counts against Risk. Shaking is about as much of a worry in La Tuque as in most places, at $0.038 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives La Tuque a grade of A; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about La Tuque’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for La Tuque: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What La Tuque faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in La Tuque: A
Seismic risk and radon set La Tuque’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #3 of 507 in Quebec and #516 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Only 58 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
A moderate wildfire record for La Tuque: 3.5% within 25 km burned, 0.5% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where La Tuque’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Moderate: the land around La Tuque burns at 0.09% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest fuel covers 78% of the land close to La Tuque and 85% across 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
La Tuque ranks 4th of the 513 towns in Quebec for burn rate, at 0.09% 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.
La Tuque is in the moderate band, which holds 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 2.1% 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.
La Tuque is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches La Tuque, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching La Tuque is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 2006; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuque-Croche | Gouvernement du Québec | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, La Tuque 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 grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of La Tuque’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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in La Tuque $0.038 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.
With $0.038 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, La Tuque is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.3 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Quebec: La Tuque’s $0.038 against a median of $0.14; La Pocatière has $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.
La Tuque’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 45% of the 2,611 towns 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).
The model counts damage to La Tuque’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).
Radon runs low around La Tuque: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in La Tuque’s area, at 0%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around La Tuque (0%) 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.
Few tests over the guideline: La Tuque shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 Tuque only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for La Tuque
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for La Tuque; 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 La Tuque come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what La Tuque faces
Practical steps for La Tuque’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
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 La Tuque’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 La Tuque until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of La Tuque’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 La Tuque without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in La Tuque
How is La Tuque’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
La Tuque grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is La Tuque at risk of wildfire?
Some, but La Tuque’s moderate band (3.5% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in La Tuque?
The area’s survey found 0% of 58 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in La Tuque.
How big is the earthquake risk in La Tuque?
Expected earthquake damage in La Tuque comes to $0.038 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does La Tuque flood?
A flood study covers La Tuque on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
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).