Photo: Hayden Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Lyster’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 0% of area homes over the radon guideline
Around Lyster, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Lyster a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Lyster’s hazards
For Lyster, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Lyster faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Lyster grades B+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Lyster with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 58 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 Lyster has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Lyster’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Lyster burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 23 km from Lyster’s homes, none within 5 km.
34% of the land within 5 km of Lyster is forest fuel, close to the 39% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Lyster, as for 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops the list 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Lyster is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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.
No flood study is listed for Lyster
Flood studies whose area touches Lyster, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Lyster, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Lyster has none.
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 Lyster’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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Lyster $0.12 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; Lyster loses $0.12, 4.1 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Quebec: Lyster’s $0.12 sits by the median of $0.14, while 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.
Lyster sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 23% 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Lyster.
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 Lyster: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
At 0% over the guideline, the area around Lyster is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Quebec (8.2%), the area around Lyster has fewer high tests: 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Lyster, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Lyster’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Lyster
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Lyster; 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 Lyster, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Lyster’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lyster | Low | $0.12 | 0% | None listed |
| Laurierville 1,368 · 11 km | Low | $0.095 | 0% | Yes |
| Val-Alain 1,084 · 12 km | Low | $0.13 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Janvier-de-Joly 1,204 · 14 km | Low | $0.13 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-Flavien 1,682 · 15 km | Low | $0.12 | 13% | None listed |
| Sainte-Agathe-de-Lotbinière 1,042 · 16 km | Low | $0.091 | 13% | None listed |
| Laurier-Station 2,838 · 18 km | Low | $0.14 | 13% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Laurierville (low), still no more than Lyster (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Lyster faces
What to do about the hazards Lyster 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. For Lyster, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Lyster’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Lyster.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Lyster takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lyster
Does Lyster flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Lyster’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Lyster?
Around Lyster, 58 survey homes were tested and 0% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Lyster at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Lyster since 1986 (last in 2021); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Lyster’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Lyster B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lyster?
About $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Lyster.
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).