Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Roxton Falls: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Roxton Falls, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Roxton Falls as in most places, at $0.058 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon around Roxton Falls is ordinary for Canada: 8.2% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Roxton Falls grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Roxton Falls’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Roxton Falls: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Roxton Falls faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Roxton Falls: C+
For Roxton Falls, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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.
Little of the land around Roxton Falls has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Roxton Falls’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Forty years of fire maps put Roxton Falls at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Roxton Falls’ homes came within 12 km, never inside 5 km.
14% of the land within 25 km of Roxton Falls is forest fuel, yet only 3.9% within 5 km of its homes.
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
Near-zero burning puts Roxton Falls with 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec, far below Mistissini 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.
Roxton Falls 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Roxton Falls (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Roxton Falls: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Roxton Falls is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 1991; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roxton-Falls | Gouvernement du Québec | 1991 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Roxton Falls 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Roxton Falls’ homes are at risk.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Roxton Falls: $0.058 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Roxton Falls’ ground: $0.058 against a typical $0.030, 1.9 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Quebec: Roxton Falls’ $0.058 against a median of $0.14; La Pocatière has $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: 30% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Roxton Falls.
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 Roxton Falls’ 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).
Some radon around Roxton Falls: 8.2% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Monteregie health region
At 8.2% over the guideline, the area around Roxton Falls is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Roxton Falls is ordinary for towns in Quebec: 8.2%, beside a median of 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: Roxton Falls, 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Roxton Falls only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Roxton Falls
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Roxton Falls; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Roxton Falls, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Roxton Falls’ neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roxton Falls | Low | $0.058 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Roxton 1,180 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.077 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Acton Vale 7,945 · 8.5 km | Low | $0.093 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Joachim-de-Shefford 1,552 · 13 km | Low | $0.057 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Valérien-de-Milton 1,794 · 14 km | Low | $0.098 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Théodore-d'Acton 1,650 · 15 km | Low | $0.099 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Upton 2,149 · 15 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Roxton Falls has the most fire on record (low); Roxton follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Roxton Falls faces
Practical steps for Roxton Falls’ 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Roxton Falls’.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Roxton Falls sits in.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Roxton Falls floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Roxton Falls’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Roxton Falls
How big is the earthquake risk in Roxton Falls?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Roxton Falls $0.058 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Roxton Falls’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Roxton Falls grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Roxton Falls?
The area’s survey found 8.2% of 110 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Roxton Falls.
Is Roxton Falls at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Roxton Falls’ low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Does Roxton Falls flood?
Roxton Falls’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
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).