Photo: William Brymner · Public domainFlood mapping exists for Rivière-Beaudette: 1 on record, latest by Raisin Region Conservation Authority
Fire has left almost no mark near Rivière-Beaudette: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.15 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Rivière-Beaudette’s survey area, 8.2% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Rivière-Beaudette a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Rivière-Beaudette’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Rivière-Beaudette: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Rivière-Beaudette faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Rivière-Beaudette grades C for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Rivière-Beaudette’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #271 of 507 in Quebec and #2,224 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 Rivière-Beaudette: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Rivière-Beaudette’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.001% of the land a year, Rivière-Beaudette’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 11 km from Rivière-Beaudette’s homes since 1986.
Little near Rivière-Beaudette’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0.4% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 3.2% 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
Rivière-Beaudette burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 513 towns in Quebec; the leader, Mistissini, reaches 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 Rivière-Beaudette, 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.
Rivière-Beaudette is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Raisin Region Conservation Authority
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Rivière-Beaudette: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Rivière-Beaudette the inventory points to Raisin Region Conservation Authority’s 2020 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raisin River and St. Lawrence River Floodplain Mapping Update | Raisin Region Conservation Authority | 2020 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Rivière-Beaudette has one.
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 Rivière-Beaudette.
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 Rivière-Beaudette: $0.15 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Rivière-Beaudette’s $0.15 is about 5.1 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 median in Quebec is $0.14; Rivière-Beaudette, at $0.15, 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 15% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Rivière-Beaudette.
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 Rivière-Beaudette’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).
Radon about average around Rivière-Beaudette: 8.2% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Monteregie health region
Around Rivière-Beaudette, 8.2% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Rivière-Beaudette, 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.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Rivière-Beaudette, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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 share describes the area, not a house: in Rivière-Beaudette as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Rivière-Beaudette
Alerts for Rivière-Beaudette 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. |
Evacuation orders for Rivière-Beaudette come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Rivière-Beaudette
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rivière-Beaudette | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Zotique 10,445 · 6.8 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Polycarpe 2,549 · 7.7 km | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Sainte-Barbe 1,993 · 11 km | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Les Coteaux 6,294 · 11 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Anicet 2,854 · 12 km | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Coteau-du-Lac 7,839 · 15 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | None listed |
Sainte-Barbe burns a little more than Rivière-Beaudette, 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 Rivière-Beaudette faces
Practical steps for Rivière-Beaudette’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.
- 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Rivière-Beaudette’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Rivière-Beaudette 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 Rivière-Beaudette.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Rivière-Beaudette’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Rivière-Beaudette
Is Rivière-Beaudette at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Rivière-Beaudette’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2024), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Rivière-Beaudette?
8.2% of the 110 homes Health Canada tested around Rivière-Beaudette topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Rivière-Beaudette?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Rivière-Beaudette $0.15 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Rivière-Beaudette’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Rivière-Beaudette grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Rivière-Beaudette flood?
There is flood mapping for Rivière-Beaudette on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
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).