Photo: Louise Montgrain · CC BY 3.0Lorraine faces more hazards than 88% of Canadian towns
Little of the land around Lorraine has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.000% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.18 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. Lorraine grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Lorraine’s hazards
For Lorraine, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Lorraine faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Lorraine grades D for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Lorraine’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #439 of 507 in Quebec and #2,432 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 78 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Lorraine has burned: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Lorraine’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Lorraine’s 0.000% is in the low band.
Homes in Lorraine sit on open or built-up ground (3.6% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 5.7%.
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
Near-zero burning puts Lorraine with 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec, far below Mistissini 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Lorraine, burning rounds to zero.
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 Lorraine (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Lorraine: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Lorraine, Gouvernement du Québec’s from 2006, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moulins-Thérèse-De-Blainville-Deux-Montagnes-Laval | Gouvernement du Québec | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Lorraine is one of them.
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 Lorraine’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 Lorraine $0.18 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 6 times the typical $0.030: Lorraine’s $0.18 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Lorraine’s $0.18 tops the median in Quebec, $0.14, though 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 13% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Lorraine.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Lorraine is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Lorraine: 10% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
More homes than usual test high around Lorraine: 10% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Laurentides health region, Lorraine included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Lorraine, 10% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.3% over 600, against a median of 8.2% in Quebec.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Lorraine is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are 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.
Neighbouring homes in Lorraine can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Lorraine
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Lorraine; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Lorraine, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Lorraine
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lorraine | Low | $0.18 | 10% | Yes |
| Bois-des-Filion 10,666 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.13 | 10% | Yes |
| Rosemère 14,198 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.16 | 10% | Yes |
| Auteuil 27,843 · 4.8 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | Yes |
| Sainte-Thérèse 27,253 · 5.4 km | Low | $0.20 | 10% | None listed |
| Blainville 61,739 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.19 | 10% | None listed |
| Sainte-Rose 37,408 · 7.3 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | Yes |
Sainte-Thérèse burns a little more than Lorraine, 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 Lorraine faces
Practical steps for Lorraine’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
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Lorraine takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Lorraine’s included.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Lorraine.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Lorraine.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lorraine
How is Lorraine’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Lorraine grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Lorraine flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Lorraine; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is Lorraine at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Lorraine’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lorraine?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Lorraine $0.18 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Lorraine?
The area’s survey found 10% of 78 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Lorraine.
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).