Photo: Jeangagnon · CC BY-SA 3.025% of homes tested in Nouvelle’s area are above the radon guideline
Burn scars are few around Nouvelle, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.001% a year). NRCan expects $0.030 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Nouvelle, near the typical $0.030. Hazard risk gives Nouvelle a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Nouvelle’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Nouvelle: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Nouvelle faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Nouvelle: C−
Seismic risk and radon set Nouvelle’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Nouvelle has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Nouvelle’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
With 0.001% burned a year, Nouvelle is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Within 5 km of Nouvelle, 68% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 74%.
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
Nouvelle sits mid-table in Quebec: 136th of 514 towns, at 0.001% a year, well 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.
Nouvelle 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Nouvelle (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Nouvelle: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Nouvelle the inventory points to Gouvernement du Québec’s 1995 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nouvelle | Gouvernement du Québec | 1995 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Nouvelle among them, below the 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Nouvelle to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Nouvelle: $0.030 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nouvelle’s $0.030 matches the typical town’s $0.030.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Nouvelle expects less, $0.030, and La Pocatière the most, $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.
Nouvelle’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 48% of the 2,611 towns 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 Nouvelle’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 Nouvelle: 25% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Nouvelle’s area, at 25%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Nouvelle than in most towns in Quebec: 25% over the guideline (8.2% is typical), 3.4% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns (3.1%) share the 20–30% band with Nouvelle, and 1.5% sit above it.
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 Nouvelle; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Gaspesie - Iles-de-la-Madeleine health region
Weather and fire alerts for Nouvelle
Alerts for Nouvelle 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 Nouvelle 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)
How Nouvelle’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nouvelle | Low | $0.030 | 25% | Yes |
| Dalhousie 3,255 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.031 | 24% | Yes |
| Carleton-sur-Mer 4,175 · 15 km | Low | $0.033 | 25% | Yes |
| Charlo 1,386 · 16 km | Low | $0.048 | 24% | Yes |
| Eel River Crossing 1,918 · 17 km | Low | $0.048 | 24% | Yes |
| Dalhousie 1,132 · 18 km | Low | $0.033 | 24% | Yes |
The fire record around Charlo is a touch heavier than Nouvelle’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Nouvelle faces
Practical steps for Nouvelle’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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Nouvelle’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Nouvelle until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Nouvelle’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Nouvelle without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Nouvelle
Is radon a problem in Nouvelle?
The area’s survey found 25% of 174 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Nouvelle.
Is Nouvelle at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Nouvelle’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How is Nouvelle’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Nouvelle grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Nouvelle flood?
A flood study covers Nouvelle on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Nouvelle?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Nouvelle $0.030 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).