Photo: Wilfredor · CC0A flood study covers Québec: 9 on the national inventory, the newest from Ville de Québec
Fire seldom reaches Québec: since 1986, 0% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.000% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.14 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. About as many homes carry radon around Québec as elsewhere, 8.8% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%.
What stands out about Québec’s hazards
For Québec, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Québec faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Québec: the grade is still to come
The grade weighs Québec’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Québec: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Québec’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Québec fire takes 0.000% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Within 5 km of Québec, 14% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 29%.
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
To three decimals the burn rate around Québec is zero, as for 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec, while 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Québec, 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.
Québec is on the flood map inventory: 9 studies, latest by Ville de Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Québec, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Ville de Québec and others have studied flooding in areas that include Québec: 9 studies, the latest from 2015.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ville-de-Québec | Ville de Québec | 2015 | final |
| Ville-de-Québec-Huronne-Wandat | Ville de Québec | 2015 | final |
| Villes de Québec et de L'Ancienne-Lorette | Ville de Québec | 2014 | final |
| boulevard Central-Père-Lelièvre | Ville de Québec | 2011 | final |
| St-Brigitte-de-Laval | Gouvernement du Québec | 2005 | final |
| Shannon | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
| Trois-Saults | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
| Enchanteresse | Gouvernement du Québec | 1992 | final |
1 more studies on the inventory touch Québec.
Towns with a flood study on file
Québec 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 9 studies touching Québec are spread over time, from the 1990s to the 2010s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Québec.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Québec.
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 Québec’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.
At $0.14 per $1,000, Québec carries roughly 4.6 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Québec ($0.14) matches the middle in Quebec ($0.14), far from La Pocatière’s $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.
20% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Québec, which places it in the upper third.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Québec.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
8.8% of homes tested around Québec are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of Québec reads 8.8%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Québec doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Capitale-Nationale health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Québec’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.
A middling share of high tests puts Québec with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Québec, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Québec
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Québec; 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 Québec, 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 Québec’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Québec | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Neufchatel Est—Lebourgneuf 37,164 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Charlesbourg 9,660 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Rodrigue 12,018 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Duberger—Les Saules 27,419 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Vanier 13,494 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Lairet 15,251 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
Neufchatel Est—Lebourgneuf burns a little more than Québec, 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 Québec faces
What to do about the hazards Québec 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Québec until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Québec, 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 Québec without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Québec’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Québec
Is radon a problem in Québec?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.8% of 160 homes tested in Québec’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Québec flood?
A flood study covers Québec on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How is Québec’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
No letter so far; once Canada is graded, Québec’s Risk will rest on earthquakes and radon, plus wildfire where it counts against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Québec?
About $0.14 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Québec.
Is Québec at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Québec has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
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).