Photo: Alchimist · CC BY-SA 3.0Rimouski faces more hazards than 88% of Canadian towns
Fire has left almost no mark near Rimouski: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.091 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 14% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Rimouski a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Rimouski’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Rimouski: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Rimouski faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Rimouski grades D for hazard risk
For Rimouski, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #441 of 507 in Quebec and #2,434 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Rimouski: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Rimouski’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Rimouski’s 0.000% is in the low band.
There is forest near Rimouski’s homes (43% within 5 km) and more of it further out (58% 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
Mistissini has the highest burn rate in Quebec, 0.31% a year; around Rimouski, as around 144 of the 513 towns, it rounds to zero.
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%; Rimouski, 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Rimouski
Flood studies whose area touches Rimouski, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Rimouski; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Rimouski has none.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Rimouski.
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 Rimouski’s costliest hazard: $0.091 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Rimouski’s $0.091 is about 3 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
Rimouski’s $0.091 sits under the median in Quebec, $0.14, and well under La Pocatière’s $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.
Rimouski sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 27% 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).
The model counts damage to Rimouski’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).
14% of homes tested around Rimouski are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Rimouski’s area, at 14%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Rimouski (14%) than in the typical town in Quebec (8.2%); 1.8% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Rimouski is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% 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.
The survey sampled homes around Rimouski; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Bas-Saint-Laurent health region
Weather and fire alerts for Rimouski
Alerts for Rimouski 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Rimouski are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Rimouski
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rimouski | Low | $0.091 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Anaclet-de-Lessard 3,018 · 7.3 km | Low | $0.095 | 14% | None listed |
| Sainte-Luce 2,808 · 18 km | Low | $0.092 | 14% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Saint-Anaclet-de-Lessard (low), still no more than Rimouski (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Rimouski faces
Practical steps for Rimouski’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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Rimouski’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Rimouski’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Rimouski 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 Rimouski until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Rimouski
Is Rimouski at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Rimouski (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How big is the earthquake risk in Rimouski?
About $0.091 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Rimouski.
How is Rimouski’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Rimouski’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Rimouski flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Rimouski (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Rimouski?
14% of the 171 homes Health Canada tested around Rimouski 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).