Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainHazards in L'Aéroport: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 8.8% of tested homes
Wildfire barely registers for L'Aéroport, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.14 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. L'Aéroport grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about L'Aéroport’s hazards
For L'Aéroport, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What L'Aéroport faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
L'Aéroport grades C− for hazard risk
For L'Aéroport, 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: 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.
Little of the land around L'Aéroport has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where L'Aéroport’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.001% burned a year, L'Aéroport is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Since 1986 the nearest fire to L'Aéroport’s homes came within 16 km, never inside 5 km.
There is forest near L'Aéroport’s homes (5.7% within 5 km) and more of it further out (26% 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
At 0.001% a year, L'Aéroport ranks 136th of the 513 towns in Quebec; 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.
L'Aéroport 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 L'Aéroport
Flood studies whose area touches L'Aéroport, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for L'Aéroport on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and L'Aéroport is not among them.
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 L'Aéroport’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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in L'Aéroport $0.14 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 4.6 times the typical $0.030: L'Aéroport’s $0.14 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: L'Aéroport 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 20% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than L'Aéroport.
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 L'Aéroport.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk published for the city of Québec, not by town
Some radon around L'Aéroport: 8.8% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of L'Aéroport reads 8.8%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. L'Aéroport 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
L'Aéroport’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.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share L'Aéroport’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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.
Radon varies from house to house in L'Aéroport, 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 L'Aéroport
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for L'Aéroport; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for L'Aéroport come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How L'Aéroport’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L'Aéroport | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Cap-Rouge 17,139 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| L'Ancienne-Lorette 17,876 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Pointe-de-Sainte-Foy 14,541 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Plateau 14,176 · 4.1 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Duberger—Les Saules 27,419 · 6.0 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Saint-Louis 15,792 · 6.1 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Cap-Rouge (low), still no more than L'Aéroport (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what L'Aéroport faces
Practical steps for L'Aéroport’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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in L'Aéroport floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against L'Aéroport.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region L'Aéroport sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, L'Aéroport’s included.
Questions about flooding and hazards in L'Aéroport
How big is the earthquake risk in L'Aéroport?
Expected earthquake damage in L'Aéroport comes to $0.14 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is L'Aéroport at risk of wildfire?
Some, but L'Aéroport’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2020) is short of the level that counts.
How is L'Aéroport’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives L'Aéroport C−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does L'Aéroport flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for L'Aéroport, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is radon a problem in L'Aéroport?
The area’s survey found 8.8% of 160 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in L'Aéroport.
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).