Photo: Harfang · CC BY-SA 3.0On hazards, Ragueneau comes out behind 96% of Canadian towns
With 0.30% of the land around it burning each year, Ragueneau sits in the high wildfire band (12% within 25 km since 1986). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.094 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is about average around Ragueneau: 4.7% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Ragueneau grades D− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Ragueneau’s hazards
For Ragueneau, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Ragueneau faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Ragueneau grades D− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Ragueneau’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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.
Fire country: 12% of the land within 25 km of Ragueneau has burned since 1986, 0.7% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Ragueneau’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Ragueneau is 0.30%, against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town: the high band.
Forest fuel covers 67% of the land close to Ragueneau and 84% across 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 514
In the top quarter in Quebec: Ragueneau ranks 2nd of 514 at 0.30% a year, with Mistissini first 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.
Just 1.9% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough for the high band where Ragueneau sits; 0.2% burn faster.
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 Ragueneau
Flood studies whose area touches Ragueneau, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Ragueneau; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Ragueneau is not among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Ragueneau’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Ragueneau: $0.094 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Ragueneau’s $0.094 is about 3.1 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
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Ragueneau expects less, $0.094, and La Pocatière the most, $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 26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Ragueneau.
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 Ragueneau.
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 Ragueneau: 4.7% 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 Ragueneau reads 4.7%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Quebec is 8.2% over 200 Bq/m³; around Ragueneau it is 4.7%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Ragueneau with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
Whatever Ragueneau’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Cote-Nord health region)
Where to get warnings in Ragueneau
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Ragueneau; 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 Ragueneau, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Ragueneau
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ragueneau | High | $0.094 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Chute-aux-Outardes 1,406 · 6.8 km | Moderate | $0.078 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Pointe-aux-Outardes 1,447 · 8.1 km | Moderate | $0.10 | 4.7% | None listed |
| Pointe-Lebel 1,800 · 16 km | Low | $0.11 | 4.7% | None listed |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Ragueneau (high), with Chute-aux-Outardes next at moderate.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Ragueneau faces
Practical steps for Ragueneau’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Ragueneau takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Ragueneau.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Ragueneau.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Ragueneau’s included.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Ragueneau
Does Ragueneau flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Ragueneau (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Ragueneau at risk of wildfire?
It is: 12% of the land within 25 km of Ragueneau has burned since 1986, the latest in 2024, which puts it in the high band that lowers Risk.
How is Ragueneau’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Ragueneau’s Hazard risk grade is D−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Ragueneau?
Expected earthquake damage in Ragueneau comes to $0.094 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Ragueneau?
4.7% of the 107 homes Health Canada tested around Ragueneau 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).