Photo: Fralambert · CC BY-SA 4.0Lanoraie is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Fire seldom reaches Lanoraie: since 1986, 0% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.001% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.13 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 Lanoraie a grade of B−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Lanoraie’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lanoraie: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lanoraie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Lanoraie grades B− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Lanoraie’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #86 of 507 in Quebec and #1,597 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.
Few fires near Lanoraie: 0.2% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Lanoraie’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Lanoraie burns at 0.001% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The ring nearest Lanoraie is the most wooded: 17% forest fuel within 5 km against 5.6% 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
Lanoraie burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 513 towns in Quebec; the leader, Mistissini, reaches 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Lanoraie 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.
A flood study covers Lanoraie, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Lanoraie: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 1996 study by Gouvernement du Québec covers Lanoraie, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varennes-Grondines | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Lanoraie 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 Lanoraie’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 Lanoraie’s costliest hazard: $0.13 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 4.5 times the typical $0.030: Lanoraie’s $0.13 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Quebec: Lanoraie’s $0.13 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 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Lanoraie.
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 loss is to Lanoraie’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Lanoraie: 3.9% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Radon tests for the Lanaudiere health region
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Lanoraie’s area has fewer, 3.9%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Lanoraie (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 Lanoraie 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Lanoraie can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Lanoraie
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Lanoraie; 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 Lanoraie 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 Lanoraie
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lanoraie | Low | $0.13 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Roch-de-Richelieu 2,984 · 9.6 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Victoire-de-Sorel 2,599 · 9.8 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Lavaltrie 15,996 · 10 km | Low | $0.15 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Ours 1,817 · 10 km | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sorel-Tracy 36,537 · 11 km | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Thomas 3,477 · 11 km | Low | $0.15 | 3.9% | Yes |
Nowhere around Lanoraie burns more: Saint-Roch-de-Richelieu, 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 Lanoraie faces
Practical steps for Lanoraie’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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Lanoraie’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Lanoraie’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Lanoraie without grading them.
- 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 Lanoraie until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lanoraie
Is Lanoraie at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Lanoraie’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How is Lanoraie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Lanoraie grades B− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Lanoraie?
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 Lanoraie.
Does Lanoraie flood?
A flood study covers Lanoraie on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lanoraie?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Lanoraie $0.13 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).