Photo: Nicolas Raymond from Bethesda, Maryland, USA · CC BY 2.0A quiet place for hazards: low wildfire, little earthquake risk, and 3.9% of tested homes over the radon guideline in Rawdon’s area
Burn scars are few around Rawdon, with 0% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.001% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.085 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Rawdon grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Rawdon’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Rawdon: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Rawdon faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Rawdon: B
Seismic risk and radon set Rawdon’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #51 of 507 in Quebec and #1,410 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 77 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Rawdon: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Rawdon’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Rawdon burns at 0.001% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
About as much forest grows next to Rawdon’s homes (25% within 5 km) as across 25 km (26%).
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
Rawdon sits mid-table in Quebec: 136th of 513 towns, at 0.001% a year, well behind Mistissini (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.
Some fire is mapped around Rawdon, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
No flood study is listed for Rawdon
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Rawdon: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Rawdon, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Rawdon has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Rawdon to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.”
Shaking is Rawdon’s costliest hazard: $0.085 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Rawdon’s $0.085 is about 2.8 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; Rawdon expects less, $0.085, 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 27% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Rawdon.
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).
The model counts damage to Rawdon’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
3.9% of homes tested around Rawdon are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Lanaudiere health region
Rawdon’s survey area reads 3.9% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Rawdon’s area, at 3.9%, is below the median in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Rawdon shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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.
One home in Rawdon can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Rawdon
Alerts for Rawdon come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Rawdon to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Rawdon’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rawdon | Low | $0.085 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Sainte-Julienne 12,990 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.11 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Sainte-Marcelline-de-Kildare 1,941 · 12 km | Low | $0.064 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Chertsey 5,678 · 13 km | Low | $0.073 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Alexis 1,462 · 13 km | Low | $0.17 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez 3,639 · 13 km | Low | $0.067 | 3.9% | None listed |
| Saint-Liguori 2,268 · 14 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | None listed |
Sainte-Julienne (low) has the heaviest fire record of Rawdon’s neighbours, and Rawdon (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Rawdon faces
Practical steps for Rawdon’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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
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 Rawdon 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 Rawdon.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Rawdon’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Rawdon’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Rawdon
Is Rawdon at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Rawdon’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Rawdon?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Rawdon $0.085 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Rawdon?
3.9% of the 77 homes Health Canada tested around Rawdon topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Rawdon flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Rawdon (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How is Rawdon’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Rawdon B, 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).