Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Ripon is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Fire seldom reaches Ripon: since 1986, 0% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.000% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.090 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is higher than usual: 13% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Ripon a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Ripon’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Ripon: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Ripon faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Ripon grades C− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Ripon’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 radon share rests on 63 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Ripon: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Ripon’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Ripon burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
More forest grows near Ripon’s homes (28% within 5 km) than across 25 km (22%).
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
Little or nothing burns around Ripon in a typical year; 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec share that, and Mistissini leads 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.
92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are in the low band and 7.5% above it; Ripon is among the many where the yearly burn rate rounds to zero.
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.
Ripon is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Ripon, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Gouvernement du Québec studied flooding in an area that includes Ripon (2006); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ripon-St-André-Avellin | Gouvernement du Québec | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Ripon is one of them.
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 Ripon.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Ripon $0.090 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 3 times the typical $0.030: Ripon’s $0.090 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Ripon expects less, $0.090, 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.
27% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Ripon, which places it in the upper third.
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 Ripon’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).
13% of homes tested around Ripon are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Outaouais health region: radon tests
At 13% over the guideline, the area around Ripon beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ripon’s area, at 13%, is above the median in Quebec (8.2%), and 4.8% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Ripon, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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 share describes the area, not a house: in Ripon as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Ripon
Alerts for Ripon 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 Ripon to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Ripon
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ripon | Low | $0.090 | 13% | Yes |
| Saint-André-Avellin 3,862 · 7.2 km | Low | $0.11 | 13% | Yes |
| Montpellier 1,253 · 10 km | Low | $0.092 | 13% | None listed |
| Lac-Simon 1,159 · 14 km | Low | $0.095 | 13% | Yes |
| Plaisance 1,191 · 18 km | Low | $0.11 | 13% | None listed |
| Papineauville 2,332 · 18 km | Low | $0.11 | 13% | Yes |
Montpellier burns a little more than Ripon, 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 Ripon faces
Practical steps for Ripon’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- 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 Ripon’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Ripon takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Ripon’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Ripon.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Ripon
How big is the earthquake risk in Ripon?
About $0.090 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Ripon.
Is radon a problem in Ripon?
The area’s survey found 13% of 63 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Ripon.
How is Ripon’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Ripon C−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Ripon at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Ripon’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Does Ripon flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Ripon; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in 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).