Photo: Roncanada · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for Maskinongé: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Maskinongé, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.13 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, just 0% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Maskinongé grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Maskinongé’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Maskinongé: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Maskinongé faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Maskinongé grades B+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Maskinongé, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Maskinongé has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Maskinongé’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Maskinongé burns at 0.001% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 15 km from Maskinongé’s homes since 1986.
Close to Maskinongé there is little to burn (3.4% forest fuel within 5 km), but 15% of the land within 25 km is forest.
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
Maskinongé burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 514 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, Maskinongé 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.
A flood study covers Maskinongé, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Maskinongé, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Gouvernement du Québec holds the flood mapping that covers Maskinongé (1996), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varennes-Grondines | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Maskinongé is one of the 45% of towns in Quebec with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Maskinongé floods.
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.
High seismic risk in Maskinongé: $0.13 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.13 per $1,000, Maskinongé carries roughly 4.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Maskinongé at $0.13 beside a median in Quebec of $0.14, with La Pocatière on top 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 22% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Maskinongé.
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 loss is to Maskinongé’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
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 Maskinongé: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Maskinongé’s area, at 0%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region, Maskinongé included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Maskinongé than in most towns in Quebec: 0% against 8.2%.
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 Maskinongé, 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Maskinongé can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Maskinongé
Alerts for Maskinongé 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 Maskinongé 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 Maskinongé’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maskinongé | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Louiseville 7,570 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Sainte-Ursule 1,363 · 9.6 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Barthélemy 2,115 · 10 km | Low | $0.10 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Yamachiche 2,801 · 15 km | Low | $0.14 | 0% | Yes |
| Sainte-Anne-de-Sorel 2,770 · 19 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Cuthbert 1,865 · 19 km | Low | $0.12 | 3.9% | Yes |
Yamachiche burns a little more than Maskinongé, 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 Maskinongé faces
What to do about the hazards Maskinongé 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. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Maskinongé’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Maskinongé is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Maskinongé.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Maskinongé’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Maskinongé
Is radon a problem in Maskinongé?
In Health Canada’s survey, 0% of 58 homes tested in Maskinongé’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Maskinongé at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Maskinongé has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Maskinongé flood?
There is flood mapping for Maskinongé on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Maskinongé’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Maskinongé’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Maskinongé?
Expected earthquake damage in Maskinongé comes to $0.13 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).