Photo: Félix Mathieu-Bégin · CC BY-SA 4.0Guybourg’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 6.8% of area homes over the radon guideline
Burn scars are few around Guybourg, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.002% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.20 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Guybourg grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Guybourg’s hazards
For Guybourg, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Guybourg faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Guybourg: C
The grade weighs Guybourg’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: #161 of 507 in Quebec and #2,110 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 74 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.
Little of the land around Guybourg has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Guybourg’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Guybourg burns at 0.002% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Guybourg’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 16 km away.
Forest makes up 0.5% of the land within 5 km of Guybourg and 1.3% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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
At 0.002% a year, Guybourg is near the top in Quebec: 35th of 513, 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.
Guybourg is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Guybourg
Flood studies whose area touches Guybourg, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Guybourg on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for 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 Guybourg 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 is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Guybourg’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Guybourg: $0.20 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Guybourg loses $0.20, 6.7 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Guybourg, at $0.20, 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.
Guybourg is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 8.5% 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Guybourg.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of Montréal
Some radon around Guybourg: 6.8% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Montreal health region
The survey area of Guybourg reads 6.8%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Guybourg’s area, at 6.8%, is close to the median in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Guybourg is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Guybourg’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Guybourg
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Guybourg; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Guybourg, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Guybourg
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guybourg | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Longue-Pointe 20,337 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Maisonneuve 20,651 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Louis-Riel 19,647 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Beaurivage 13,574 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Fatima 6,213 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.23 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Hochelaga 11,355 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Guybourg has the most fire on record (low); Longue-Pointe follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Guybourg faces
What to do about the hazards Guybourg 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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Guybourg without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Guybourg’s included.
- 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 Guybourg.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Guybourg until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Guybourg
How big is the earthquake risk in Guybourg?
About $0.20 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Guybourg.
How is Guybourg’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Guybourg C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Guybourg flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Guybourg’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Guybourg?
Around Guybourg, 74 survey homes were tested and 6.8% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Guybourg at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Guybourg since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts 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).