Photo: DomLemLali · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for Plessisville: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
For Plessisville, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.069 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Plessisville grades A− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Plessisville’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Plessisville: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Plessisville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Plessisville grades A− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Plessisville’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #12 of 507 in Quebec and #678 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 58 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Plessisville: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Plessisville’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Plessisville burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Plessisville’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 8.6 km off.
There is forest near Plessisville’s homes (21% within 5 km) and more of it further out (34% within 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
Little or nothing burns around Plessisville in a typical year; 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec share that, and Mistissini leads at 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Plessisville is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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.
Plessisville is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Plessisville, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Plessisville is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 2012; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plessisville-Plessisville | Gouvernement du Québec | 2012 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Plessisville is one of 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 Plessisville’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.
Shaking is Plessisville’s costliest hazard: $0.069 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Plessisville’s $0.069 is about 2.3 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
Below the middle in Quebec: Plessisville’s $0.069 against a median of $0.14; La Pocatière has $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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 28% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Plessisville.
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 Plessisville’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 Plessisville: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Fewer homes than usual test high around Plessisville: 0% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Quebec (8.2%), the area around Plessisville has fewer high tests: 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Plessisville shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 Plessisville; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Data for radon tests covers the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
Weather and fire alerts for Plessisville
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Plessisville; 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 Plessisville, 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)
Hazards in the places around Plessisville
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plessisville | Low | $0.069 | 0% | Yes |
| Plessisville 2,718 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.086 | 0% | Yes |
| Princeville 6,400 · 10 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Laurierville 1,368 · 11 km | Low | $0.095 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Norbert-d'Arthabaska 1,291 · 14 km | Low | $0.059 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Louis-de-Blandford 1,066 · 16 km | Low | $0.13 | 0% | None listed |
The fire record around Princeville is a touch heavier than Plessisville’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 Plessisville faces
Practical steps for Plessisville’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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Plessisville is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Plessisville’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Plessisville.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Plessisville’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Plessisville
How big is the earthquake risk in Plessisville?
About $0.069 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Plessisville.
Is Plessisville at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Plessisville’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2022), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Plessisville?
0% of the 58 homes Health Canada tested around Plessisville topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Plessisville flood?
There is flood mapping for Plessisville on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Plessisville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Plessisville A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).