Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazards in Palmarolle are mild: low wildfire and earthquake risk, and 4.3% of area homes above the radon guideline
Around Palmarolle, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Palmarolle as in most places, at $0.021 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Palmarolle a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Palmarolle’s hazards
For Palmarolle, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Palmarolle faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Palmarolle grades A− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Palmarolle’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 69 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.
Few fires near Palmarolle: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Palmarolle’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.001% of the land near Palmarolle burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Fire has stayed at least 13 km from Palmarolle’s homes since 1986.
Forest fuel covers 27% of the land close to Palmarolle and 40% 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 514
Palmarolle 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.
Palmarolle 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 Palmarolle
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Palmarolle: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Palmarolle has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Palmarolle has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Palmarolle.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Palmarolle $0.021 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
With $0.021 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Palmarolle is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.021, Palmarolle is below the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière is highest 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.
Palmarolle’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 63% 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Palmarolle is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
4.3% of homes tested around Palmarolle are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Abitibi-Temiscamingue health region
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Palmarolle’s area, at 4.3%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Palmarolle (4.3%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Palmarolle’s band, which holds 37%.
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.
A low area share in Palmarolle doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Palmarolle
Alerts for Palmarolle 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Palmarolle to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Palmarolle’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
The fire record around La Sarre is a touch heavier than Palmarolle’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 Palmarolle faces
Practical steps for Palmarolle’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. For Palmarolle, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Palmarolle without grading them.
- 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 Palmarolle until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Palmarolle’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Palmarolle
Is radon a problem in Palmarolle?
The area’s survey found 4.3% of 69 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Palmarolle.
How is Palmarolle’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Palmarolle A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Palmarolle flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Palmarolle, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Palmarolle at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Palmarolle’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2021) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Palmarolle?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Palmarolle’s buildings lose $0.021 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).