Photo: Jean-Philippe Boulet · CC BY 3.0Wildfire low, radon 7.3%: how Magog stands on hazards
Wildfire is rare near Magog: 0% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Magog sits near the middle: $0.047 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Magog grades B for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Magog’s hazards
For Magog, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Magog faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Magog grades B for hazard risk
The grade weighs Magog’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: #74 of 507 in Quebec and #1,479 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 55 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Magog: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Magog’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Magog burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The ring nearest Magog is the most wooded: 44% forest fuel within 5 km against 32% 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
Little or nothing burns around Magog in a typical year; 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec share that, and Mistissini leads 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, Magog 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 Magog
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Magog: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Magog; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Magog is not among them.
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 Magog 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.”
Expected shaking damage in Magog: $0.047 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Magog’s ground: $0.047 against a typical $0.030, 1.6 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Magog expects less, $0.047, and La Pocatière the most, $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: 31% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Magog.
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 Magog 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).
Some radon around Magog: 7.3% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Estrie health region
7.3% of tested homes around Magog were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Magog is ordinary for towns in Quebec: 7.3%, beside a median of 8.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Magog with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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.
Whatever Magog’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Magog
Alerts for Magog 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 Magog 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)
How Magog’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magog | Low | $0.047 | 7.3% | None listed |
| Orford 5,698 · 7.8 km | Low | $0.042 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Austin 1,959 · 8.7 km | Low | $0.042 | 7.3% | None listed |
| Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley 2,938 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.038 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Eastman 2,706 · 12 km | Low | $0.040 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Ayer's Cliff 1,284 · 13 km | Low | $0.042 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Stanstead 1,171 · 16 km | Low | $0.039 | 7.3% | None listed |
Magog’s low band tops its neighbours; Orford is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Magog faces
What to do about the hazards Magog 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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Magog’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Magog, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Magog.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Magog takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Magog
Is radon a problem in Magog?
In Health Canada’s survey, 7.3% of 55 homes tested in Magog’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Magog at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Magog has burned since 1986, the last in 2016, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Magog’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Magog’s Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Magog?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Magog $0.047 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Magog flood?
Nothing is listed for Magog on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
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).