Photo: Miguel Tremblay · CC0Rivière-Ouelle faces more hazards than 94% of Canadian towns
Burn scars are few around Rivière-Ouelle, with 0.3% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.008% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.48 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 Rivière-Ouelle a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Rivière-Ouelle’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Rivière-Ouelle: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Rivière-Ouelle faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Rivière-Ouelle: D
For Rivière-Ouelle, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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.
Little of the land around Rivière-Ouelle has burned: 0.3% within 5 km, 0.3% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Rivière-Ouelle’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Rivière-Ouelle burns at 0.008% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Rivière-Ouelle: 10% of the land within 5 km, 55% 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 514
Mistissini burns fastest in Quebec at 0.31% a year; Rivière-Ouelle, at 0.008%, ranks 21st of 514.
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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Rivière-Ouelle reads low, with 92% of them; only 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-Ouelle is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Rivière-Ouelle: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Gouvernement du Québec and others have studied flooding in areas that include Rivière-Ouelle: 2 studies, the latest from 2005.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rivière-Ouelle | Gouvernement du Québec | 2005 | final |
| St-Pacôme | Gouvernement du Québec | 2004 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Rivière-Ouelle has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Rivière-Ouelle’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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-Ouelle: $0.48 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 15.9 times the typical $0.030: Rivière-Ouelle’s $0.48 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.48, Rivière-Ouelle is above the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière has the most 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.
Only 1.5% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Rivière-Ouelle.
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 loss is to Rivière-Ouelle’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
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 Rivière-Ouelle are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Rivière-Ouelle’s area, at 14%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Rivière-Ouelle than in most towns in Quebec: 14% over the guideline (8.2% is typical), 1.8% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The 10–20% band holds 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, Rivière-Ouelle among them; 4.6% rank above.
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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Rivière-Ouelle can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
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 Rivière-Ouelle
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Rivière-Ouelle; 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 Rivière-Ouelle 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 Rivière-Ouelle
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rivière-Ouelle | Low | $0.48 | 14% | Yes |
| Saint-Pacôme 1,540 · 6.6 km | Low | $0.30 | 14% | Yes |
| La Pocatière 4,206 · 10 km | Low | $0.48 | 14% | None listed |
| Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière 1,635 · 11 km | Low | $0.34 | 14% | None listed |
| Mont-Carmel 1,191 · 14 km | Low | $0.25 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Pascal 3,516 · 17 km | Low | $0.34 | 14% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Rivière-Ouelle has the most fire on record (low); Saint-Pacôme follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Rivière-Ouelle faces
Practical steps for Rivière-Ouelle’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
- 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-Ouelle.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Rivière-Ouelle’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Rivière-Ouelle’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Rivière-Ouelle is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Rivière-Ouelle
How is Rivière-Ouelle’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Rivière-Ouelle’s Hazard risk grade is D, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Rivière-Ouelle flood?
There is flood mapping for Rivière-Ouelle on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Rivière-Ouelle at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Rivière-Ouelle’s low band (0.3% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Rivière-Ouelle?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Rivière-Ouelle’s buildings lose $0.48 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Rivière-Ouelle?
The area’s survey found 14% of 171 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Rivière-Ouelle.
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).