Photo: Dominic Germain · CC BY-SA 3.0A flood study covers Nicolet: 2 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
Little of the land around Nicolet has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.002% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.12 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Nicolet a grade of B+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Nicolet’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Nicolet: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Nicolet faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Nicolet grades B+ for hazard risk
For Nicolet, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #33 of 507 in Quebec and #1,067 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 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.
Few fires near Nicolet: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Nicolet’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.002% of the land a year, Nicolet’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 14 km from Nicolet’s homes since 1986.
12% of the land within 25 km of Nicolet is forest fuel, yet only 2.9% within 5 km of its homes.
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, Nicolet 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.
Nicolet 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.
Flooding around Nicolet is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Gouvernement du Québec
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Nicolet: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Nicolet the inventory points to 2 studies, most recently Gouvernement du Québec’s in 1996.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varennes-Grondines | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
| Nicolet | Gouvernement du Québec | 1984 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Nicolet 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.
No single decade dominates: 2 studies for Nicolet between the 1980s and the 1990s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Nicolet.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Nicolet’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
High seismic risk in Nicolet: $0.12 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nicolet’s $0.12 is about 4.1 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
The median in Quebec is $0.14; Nicolet, at $0.12, is right beside it, and La Pocatière tops the list 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 23% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Nicolet.
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 Nicolet’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).
Little radon around Nicolet: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
A lower share than most: 0% of tested homes around Nicolet, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Nicolet’s area, at 0%, is below 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.
Under 5% puts Nicolet with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
The survey sampled homes around Nicolet; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Nicolet
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Nicolet; 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 Nicolet, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Nicolet’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicolet | Low | $0.12 | 0% | Yes |
| Trois-Rivières 149,934 · 14 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Bécancour 14,943 · 14 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Baie-du-Febvre 1,023 · 16 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | Yes |
| Yamachiche 2,801 · 19 km | Low | $0.14 | 0% | Yes |
Nowhere around Nicolet burns more: Trois-Rivières, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Nicolet faces
Practical steps for Nicolet’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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Nicolet floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Nicolet’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Nicolet’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Nicolet sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Nicolet
How is Nicolet’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Nicolet B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Nicolet at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Nicolet’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2024), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Nicolet?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Nicolet $0.12 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Nicolet flood?
Nicolet’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Nicolet?
0% of the 58 homes Health Canada tested around Nicolet topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).