Photo: Miguel Tremblay · CC0Mont-Carmel faces more hazards than 94% of Canadian towns
Little of the land around Mont-Carmel has burned: 0.3% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.007% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.25 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, 14% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Mont-Carmel a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Mont-Carmel’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Mont-Carmel: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Mont-Carmel faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Mont-Carmel: D
Two inputs always count for Mont-Carmel, 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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Mont-Carmel: 0.3% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Mont-Carmel’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.007% of the land around Mont-Carmel each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Mont-Carmel’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 5.6 km away.
Forest thickens with distance from Mont-Carmel: 60% of the land within 5 km, 65% 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
In the top quarter in Quebec: Mont-Carmel ranks 23rd of 514 at 0.007% a year, with Mistissini first 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.
Some fire is mapped around Mont-Carmel, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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 Mont-Carmel
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Mont-Carmel: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The inventory has nothing for Mont-Carmel, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Mont-Carmel; in Quebec, 45% of towns have one, below 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 Mont-Carmel 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.”
High seismic risk in Mont-Carmel: $0.25 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.25 per $1,000, Mont-Carmel carries roughly 8.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Mont-Carmel, at $0.25, sits above the median of $0.14.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Mont-Carmel is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 6.2% rank 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).
The model counts damage to Mont-Carmel’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 Mont-Carmel: 14% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Bas-Saint-Laurent health region: radon tests
Mont-Carmel’s survey area reads 14% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Mont-Carmel (14%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 1.8% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Mont-Carmel, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Mont-Carmel only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Mont-Carmel
Alerts for Mont-Carmel 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 Mont-Carmel 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 Mont-Carmel
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mont-Carmel | Low | $0.25 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Pacôme 1,540 · 8.9 km | Low | $0.30 | 14% | Yes |
| Saint-Pascal 3,516 · 13 km | Low | $0.34 | 14% | None listed |
| Rivière-Ouelle 1,014 · 14 km | Low | $0.48 | 14% | Yes |
| Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière 1,635 · 14 km | Low | $0.34 | 14% | None listed |
| La Pocatière 4,206 · 16 km | Low | $0.48 | 14% | None listed |
Saint-Pacôme burns a little more than Mont-Carmel, 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 Mont-Carmel faces
What to do about the hazards Mont-Carmel 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
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Mont-Carmel takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Mont-Carmel’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Mont-Carmel.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Mont-Carmel’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Mont-Carmel
Does Mont-Carmel flood?
Nothing is listed for Mont-Carmel on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Mont-Carmel at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.3% of the land within 25 km of Mont-Carmel has burned since 1986, the last in 2024, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Mont-Carmel’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Mont-Carmel D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Mont-Carmel?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Mont-Carmel’s buildings lose $0.25 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Mont-Carmel?
In Health Canada’s survey, 14% of 171 homes tested in Mont-Carmel’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).