Photo: Carboj · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazard risk in Montmagny is higher than in 93% of Canadian towns
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Montmagny’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.19 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is higher than usual: 13% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Montmagny a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Montmagny’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Montmagny: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Montmagny faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Montmagny grades D for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Montmagny, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #498 of 507 in Quebec and #2,523 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Little of the land around Montmagny has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Montmagny’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Montmagny’s 0.000% is in the low band.
Nothing inside 5 km of Montmagny’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 18 km off.
There is forest near Montmagny’s homes (27% within 5 km) and more of it further out (50% 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 Montmagny 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, Montmagny 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.
A flood study covers Montmagny, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Montmagny, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Gouvernement du Québec holds the flood mapping that covers Montmagny (1995), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montmagny | Gouvernement du Québec | 1995 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Montmagny apart in Quebec, where 45% of towns have one (Canada: 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 Montmagny 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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Montmagny $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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Montmagny loses $0.19, 6.3 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Montmagny’s $0.19 tops the median in Quebec, $0.14, though 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.
Montmagny sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 13% 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).
The model counts damage to Montmagny’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).
13% of homes tested around Montmagny are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Chaudiere-Appalaches health region
Montmagny’s survey area reads 13% 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 Montmagny (13%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 0.6% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Montmagny sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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 Montmagny only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Montmagny
Alerts for Montmagny 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 Montmagny 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 Montmagny’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montmagny | Low | $0.19 | 13% | Yes |
| Cap-Saint-Ignace 3,074 · 9.8 km | Low | $0.21 | 13% | None listed |
| Berthier-sur-Mer 1,819 · 13 km | Low | $0.16 | 13% | None listed |
| Saint-François-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud 1,550 · 16 km | Low | $0.15 | 13% | None listed |
Cap-Saint-Ignace (low) has the heaviest fire record of Montmagny’s neighbours, and Montmagny (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Montmagny faces
What to do about the hazards Montmagny 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Montmagny’s figure is its subdivision’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 Montmagny.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Montmagny’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Montmagny takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Montmagny
Is radon a problem in Montmagny?
Around Montmagny, 175 survey homes were tested and 13% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Montmagny at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Montmagny since 1986 (last in 2020); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Montmagny flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Montmagny; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Montmagny?
Expected earthquake damage in Montmagny comes to $0.19 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Montmagny’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Montmagny grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the 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).