Photo: Veillg1 · CC BY-SA 4.0Rigaud is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal
Fire has left almost no mark near Rigaud: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.14 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is about average around Rigaud: 8.2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Rigaud a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Rigaud’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Rigaud: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Rigaud faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Rigaud grades C for hazard risk
The grade weighs Rigaud’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #253 of 507 in Quebec and #2,205 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Rigaud: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Rigaud’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Rigaud burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Rigaud’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 14 km away.
Homes in Rigaud sit on open or built-up ground (3.8% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 5.1%.
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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Rigaud, as for 144 of the 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops the list 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.
Rigaud shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% 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.
Rigaud is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Rigaud: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Rigaud is Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal’s, dated 2008; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montréal-Argenteuil-Deux-Montagnes-Vaudreuil-Soulanges | Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal | 2008 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Rigaud apart in Quebec, where 45% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
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 Rigaud.
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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
High seismic risk in Rigaud: $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; Rigaud loses $0.14, 4.7 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Quebec is $0.14; Rigaud, at $0.14, is right beside it, and La Pocatière tops the list 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 Rigaud.
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 Rigaud’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).
8.2% of homes tested around Rigaud are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Monteregie health region: radon tests
Rigaud’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.2% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Rigaud, 8.2% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Rigaud is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have more.
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.
The survey sampled homes around Rigaud; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Rigaud
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Rigaud; 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 Rigaud come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Rigaud
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rigaud | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Très-Saint-Rédempteur 1,163 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Placide 1,751 · 8.8 km | Low | $0.17 | 10% | Yes |
| Sainte-Marthe 1,065 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-André-d'Argenteuil 3,300 · 11 km | Low | $0.14 | 10% | Yes |
| Hudson 5,533 · 12 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Kanesatake 1,872 · 14 km | Low | $0.10 | 10% | Yes |
Sainte-Marthe burns a little more than Rigaud, 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 Rigaud faces
What to do about the hazards Rigaud 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Rigaud’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Rigaud.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Rigaud is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Rigaud’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Rigaud
How is Rigaud’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Rigaud grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Rigaud?
Around Rigaud, 110 survey homes were tested and 8.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Rigaud flood?
There is flood mapping for Rigaud on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Rigaud?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Rigaud $0.14 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Rigaud at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Rigaud since 1986 (last in 2021); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
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).