Photo: Wilfredor · CC0Wildfire low, radon 8.8%: how Montcalm stands on hazards
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Montcalm, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.14 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Montcalm grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Montcalm’s hazards
For Montcalm, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Montcalm faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Montcalm: C−
Two inputs always count for Montcalm, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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 Montcalm has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Montcalm’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Montcalm burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 18 km from Montcalm’s homes, none within 5 km.
Forest fuel rises from 0.2% within 5 km of Montcalm to 20% within 25 km: the fuel lies away from homes.
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 Montcalm 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%), Montcalm 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Montcalm
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Montcalm: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Montcalm, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Montcalm has none.
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 Montcalm.
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.”
High seismic risk in Montcalm: $0.14 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Montcalm loses $0.14, 4.6 times as much.
Montcalm doesn’t get its own earthquake risk figures; the ones here come from the city of Québec.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Montcalm runs at $0.14 a year, near the $0.14 of the typical town in Quebec; 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 20% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Montcalm.
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).
For Montcalm the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Montcalm: 8.8% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
8.8% of tested homes around Montcalm were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Montcalm, 8.8% of tests topped the guideline, close to the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 2.5% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Montcalm’s 5–10% band, which holds 37%.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Montcalm’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Capitale-Nationale health region
Where to get warnings in Montcalm
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Montcalm; 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 Montcalm 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 Montcalm’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montcalm | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Sauveur 16,104 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Saint-Jean-Baptiste 8,882 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Roch 8,381 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Sacrement 10,650 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Vieux-Québec—Cap-Blanc—Colline parlementaire 5,764 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Vanier 13,494 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Montcalm has the most fire on record (low); Saint-Sauveur follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Montcalm faces
What to do about the hazards Montcalm 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?
- 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. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Montcalm’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Montcalm without grading them.
- 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 Montcalm until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Montcalm, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Montcalm
Is radon a problem in Montcalm?
Around Montcalm, 160 survey homes were tested and 8.8% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Montcalm at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Montcalm since 1986 (last in 2022); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Montcalm’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Montcalm’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Montcalm?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Montcalm’s buildings lose $0.14 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Montcalm flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Montcalm’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
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).