Photo: Edgar Gariépy · Public domainA flood study covers Mascouche: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
Wildfire isn’t Mascouche’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.19 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 3.9% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Mascouche a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Mascouche’s hazards
For Mascouche, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Mascouche faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Mascouche grades C+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Mascouche’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #114 of 507 in Quebec and #1,824 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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Mascouche: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Mascouche’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.001% burned a year, Mascouche is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
No fire has burned within 5 km of Mascouche’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 6.1 km away.
6.6% of the land within 5 km of Mascouche is forest fuel, close to the 6.6% 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
Mascouche sits mid-table in Quebec: 136th of 513 towns, at 0.001% a year, well behind Mistissini (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, Mascouche 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Mascouche (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Mascouche, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Gouvernement du Québec holds the flood mapping that covers Mascouche (2012), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mascouche | Gouvernement du Québec | 2012 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Mascouche 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.
Flood mapping is shown for Mascouche 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 Mascouche $0.19 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.
Mascouche’s $0.19 is about 6.2 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Quebec: Mascouche’s $0.19 against a median of $0.14, with La Pocatière highest at $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 Mascouche.
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).
For Mascouche the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
3.9% of homes tested around Mascouche are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A lower share than most: 3.9% of tested homes around Mascouche, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Lanaudiere health region, Mascouche included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Quebec is 8.2% over 200 Bq/m³; around Mascouche it is 3.9%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Mascouche’s band, which holds 37%.
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, Mascouche’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Mascouche
Alerts for Mascouche 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. |
Evacuation orders for Mascouche come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Mascouche
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mascouche | Low | $0.19 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Terrebonne 126,872 · 4.3 km | Low | $0.17 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-François 15,338 · 8.0 km | Low | $0.21 | 12% | Yes |
| Charlemagne 6,695 · 10 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Rivière-des-Prairies 21,852 · 10 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | Yes |
| Marc-Aurèle-Fortin 36,220 · 12 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan 5,675 · 12 km | Low | $0.18 | 3.9% | None listed |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Mascouche (low), with Terrebonne next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Mascouche faces
Practical steps for Mascouche’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. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Mascouche is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Mascouche.
- 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 Mascouche.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Mascouche’s included.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Mascouche
How big is the earthquake risk in Mascouche?
Expected earthquake damage in Mascouche comes to $0.19 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Mascouche flood?
There is flood mapping for Mascouche on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Mascouche?
3.9% of the 77 homes Health Canada tested around Mascouche topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Mascouche’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Mascouche C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Mascouche at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Mascouche’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
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).