Photo: Wilfredor · CC0Charlesbourg’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 8.8% of area homes over the radon guideline
Around Charlesbourg, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.14 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Charlesbourg grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Charlesbourg’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Charlesbourg: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Charlesbourg faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Charlesbourg grades C− for hazard risk
For Charlesbourg, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #294 of 507 in Quebec and #2,256 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Charlesbourg has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Charlesbourg’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Charlesbourg burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 12 km from Charlesbourg’s homes since 1986.
The forest starts beyond town: 2% of the land within 5 km of Charlesbourg’s homes is forest fuel, against 24% 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
Of the 513 towns in Quebec, 144 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Charlesbourg among them; Mistissini leads at 0.31% a year.
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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Charlesbourg, burning rounds to zero.
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 Charlesbourg
Flood studies whose area touches Charlesbourg, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Charlesbourg, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Charlesbourg 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Charlesbourg.
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.”
Shaking is Charlesbourg’s costliest hazard: $0.14 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.
Charlesbourg’s $0.14 is about 4.6 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
Typical for its province: Charlesbourg at $0.14 beside a median in Quebec of $0.14, with La Pocatière on top 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 20% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Charlesbourg.
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 Charlesbourg’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). · Earthquake risk: the city of Québec
Radon about average around Charlesbourg: 8.8% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Charlesbourg’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.8% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Charlesbourg’s area, at 8.8%, is close to the median in Quebec (8.2%); 2.5% 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.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Charlesbourg, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are 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 Charlesbourg; 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 Capitale-Nationale health region
Weather and fire alerts for Charlesbourg
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Charlesbourg; 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 Charlesbourg, 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 Charlesbourg’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlesbourg | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Jésuites 15,792 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Rodrigue 12,018 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Orsainville 14,751 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Bourg-Royal 14,430 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Neufchatel Est—Lebourgneuf 37,164 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Lairet 15,251 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
Orsainville burns a little more than Charlesbourg, 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 Charlesbourg faces
Practical steps for Charlesbourg’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.
- 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
- 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 Charlesbourg’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Charlesbourg’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 Charlesbourg.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Charlesbourg is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Charlesbourg
How big is the earthquake risk in Charlesbourg?
About $0.14 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Charlesbourg.
Is Charlesbourg at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Charlesbourg’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.
How is Charlesbourg’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Charlesbourg C−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Charlesbourg flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Charlesbourg (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Charlesbourg?
8.8% of the 160 homes Health Canada tested around Charlesbourg topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).