Photo: Roncanada · CC BY 4.0Lavaltrie is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Fire seldom reaches Lavaltrie: since 1986, 0% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.15 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 3.9% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Lavaltrie grades B− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Lavaltrie’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lavaltrie: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lavaltrie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Lavaltrie grades B− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Lavaltrie’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #90 of 507 in Quebec and #1,663 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. 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 Lavaltrie: 0.2% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Lavaltrie’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.001% of the land near Lavaltrie burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Lavaltrie: 6.4% within 5 km, 4.9% 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
Lavaltrie 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Lavaltrie 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.
Lavaltrie is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Lavaltrie, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Gouvernement du Québec holds the flood mapping that covers Lavaltrie (1996), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varennes-Grondines | 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 Lavaltrie has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Lavaltrie to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Lavaltrie $0.15 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Lavaltrie loses $0.15, 5.1 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Quebec: Lavaltrie’s $0.15 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 15% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Lavaltrie.
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 Lavaltrie’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).
Little radon around Lavaltrie: 3.9% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Lanaudiere health region: radon tests
Lavaltrie’s area, at 3.9%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Lavaltrie (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.
Lavaltrie is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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 survey sampled homes around Lavaltrie; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Lavaltrie
Alerts for Lavaltrie come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Lavaltrie are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Lavaltrie
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lavaltrie | Low | $0.15 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Contrecoeur 10,708 · 5.8 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Sulpice 3,688 · 8.2 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Roch-de-Richelieu 2,984 · 10 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Lanoraie 5,694 · 10 km | Low | $0.13 | 3.9% | Yes |
| L'Assomption 25,126 · 11 km | Low | $0.18 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Ours 1,817 · 11 km | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
Saint-Sulpice burns a little more than Lavaltrie, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Lavaltrie faces
What to do about the hazards Lavaltrie faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Lavaltrie’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 Lavaltrie.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Lavaltrie 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 Lavaltrie’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lavaltrie
How big is the earthquake risk in Lavaltrie?
Expected earthquake damage in Lavaltrie comes to $0.15 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Lavaltrie flood?
There is flood mapping for Lavaltrie on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Lavaltrie at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Lavaltrie since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Lavaltrie?
Around Lavaltrie, 77 survey homes were tested and 3.9% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Lavaltrie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Lavaltrie B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).