Photo: Ville de Normandin · Public domainHazards in Normandin: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 2.8% of tested homes
Fire seldom reaches Normandin: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.003% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.10 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Normandin a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Normandin’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Normandin: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Normandin faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Normandin: B
The grade weighs Normandin’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: #51 of 507 in Quebec and #1,410 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 72 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 Normandin has burned: 0.3% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Normandin’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.003% of the land around Normandin each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Forest fuel covers 21% of the land close to Normandin and 53% across 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
At 0.003% a year, Normandin is near the top in Quebec: 32nd 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Normandin 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.
No flood study is listed for Normandin
Flood studies whose area touches Normandin, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Normandin; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Normandin has none.
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 Normandin’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 Normandin: $0.10 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 $0.10 per $1,000, Normandin carries roughly 3.5 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Normandin’s $0.10 sits under the median in Quebec, $0.14, and well under La Pocatière’s $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 25% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Normandin.
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 Normandin’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).
Radon runs low around Normandin: 2.8% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Normandin’s survey area reads 2.8% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Normandin doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Saguenay - Lac-Saint-Jean health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Normandin’s area, at 2.8%, is below the median in Quebec (8.2%), though 1.4% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Normandin; 63% sit 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.
The survey sampled homes around Normandin; 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 Normandin
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Normandin; 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. |
For fires near Normandin, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Normandin’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normandin | Low | $0.10 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Albanel 2,191 · 9.1 km | Low | $0.12 | 2.8% | None listed |
| La Doré 1,380 · 15 km | Low | $0.081 | 2.8% | None listed |
| Girardville 1,044 · 19 km | Low | $0.061 | 2.8% | None listed |
La Doré burns a little more than Normandin, 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 Normandin faces
What to do about the hazards Normandin 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, Normandin takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Normandin’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 Normandin.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Normandin’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Normandin
How is Normandin’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Normandin B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Normandin?
About $0.10 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Normandin.
Does Normandin flood?
Nothing is listed for Normandin on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Normandin?
In Health Canada’s survey, 2.8% of 72 homes tested in Normandin’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Normandin at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Normandin has burned since 1986, the last in 2021, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
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).