Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0Wildfire low, radon 8.8%: how Saint-Michel stands on hazards
Wildfire barely registers for Saint-Michel, at 0% of the land 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). Saint-Michel grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Michel’s hazards
For Saint-Michel, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Michel faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Michel grades C− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Saint-Michel’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Saint-Michel has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Michel’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Saint-Michel is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Saint-Michel’s homes came within 12 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest thickens with distance from Saint-Michel: 6.4% of the land within 5 km, 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, Saint-Michel 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Saint-Michel, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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 Saint-Michel
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Michel, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Saint-Michel on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Saint-Michel.
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 Saint-Michel.
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 Saint-Michel $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: Saint-Michel’s $0.14 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Saint-Michel’s $0.14 is close to the median in Quebec, $0.14; La Pocatière is highest 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.
Saint-Michel sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 20% are higher.
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 Saint-Michel 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). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Québec
Radon about average around Saint-Michel: 8.8% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Capitale-Nationale health region
Saint-Michel’s area, at 8.8%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint-Michel, 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.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Saint-Michel, 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.
A low area share in Saint-Michel doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Saint-Michel
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Michel; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Saint-Michel, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Michel
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Michel | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Sainte-Thérèse-de-Lisieux 17,558 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Vieux-Bourg 14,774 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Chutes-Montmorency 16,273 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Vieux-Moulin 15,935 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Bourg-Royal 14,430 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Boischatel 9,250 · 4.8 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.8% | Yes |
Bourg-Royal burns a little more than Saint-Michel, 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 Saint-Michel faces
Practical steps for Saint-Michel’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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Saint-Michel is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Saint-Michel.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Saint-Michel’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Saint-Michel, 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 Saint-Michel
Does Saint-Michel flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Saint-Michel, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Saint-Michel at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Michel’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Michel?
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 Saint-Michel.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Michel?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Michel comes to $0.14 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Saint-Michel’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Michel C−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).