Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 4.0Prévost is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Fire seldom reaches Prévost: since 1986, 0% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.001% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.088 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 10% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Prévost a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Prévost’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Prévost: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Prévost faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Prévost: C
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Prévost with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #269 of 507 in Quebec and #2,222 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 78 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.
Wildfire is rare near Prévost: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Past fire around Prévost’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Prévost is 0.001%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest fuel covers 20% of the land close to Prévost and 26% 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
Prévost burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 513 towns in Quebec; the leader, Mistissini, reaches 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, Prévost 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.
Prévost is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Prévost: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2005 study by Gouvernement du Québec covers Prévost, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prévost-St-Jérôme | Gouvernement du Québec | 2005 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Prévost is one of the 45% of towns in Quebec with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Prévost’s homes are at risk.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Prévost $0.088 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.088 per $1,000, Prévost carries roughly 2.9 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Prévost, at $0.088, is below the median of $0.14.
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 27% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Prévost.
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 Prévost’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 high around Prévost: 10% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
A higher share than most: 10% of tested homes around Prévost, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Prévost alone, so this card uses the figure for the Laurentides health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Prévost, 10% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.3% over 600, against a median of 8.2% in Quebec.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Prévost sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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 Prévost; 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 Prévost
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Prévost; 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 Prévost, 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 Prévost
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prévost | Low | $0.088 | 10% | Yes |
| Sainte-Anne-des-Lacs 4,080 · 4.6 km | Low | $0.10 | 10% | None listed |
| Saint-Hippolyte 12,550 · 6.3 km | Low | $0.085 | 10% | None listed |
| Piedmont 3,667 · 7.6 km | Low | $0.072 | 10% | None listed |
| Saint-Jérôme 85,160 · 8.5 km | Low | $0.15 | 10% | Yes |
| Sainte-Sophie 19,467 · 9.8 km | Low | $0.12 | 10% | None listed |
| Saint-Sauveur 12,112 · 10 km | Low | $0.094 | 10% | None listed |
Saint-Hippolyte burns a little more than Prévost, 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 Prévost faces
What to do about the hazards Prévost 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.
- 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 Prévost is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Prévost’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Prévost.
- 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 Prévost’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Prévost
How big is the earthquake risk in Prévost?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Prévost’s buildings lose $0.088 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Prévost flood?
There is flood mapping for Prévost on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Prévost at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Prévost has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Prévost’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Prévost’s Hazard risk grade is C, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Prévost?
In Health Canada’s survey, 10% of 78 homes tested in Prévost’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).