Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for Roxton: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Roxton: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.077 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Roxton’s survey area, 8.2% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Roxton grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Roxton’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Roxton: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Roxton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Roxton grades C+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Roxton, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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 has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Roxton’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Roxton burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Roxton’s homes came within 13 km, never inside 5 km.
15% of the land within 25 km of Roxton is forest fuel, yet only 4% 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
To three decimals the burn rate around Roxton is zero, as for 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec, while 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Roxton, 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.
Roxton is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Roxton, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Roxton the inventory points to Gouvernement du Québec’s 1991 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roxton-Falls | Gouvernement du Québec | 1991 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Roxton is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Roxton floods.
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.
Shaking is Roxton’s costliest hazard: $0.077 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Roxton loses $0.077, 2.6 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Roxton’s $0.077 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 28% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Roxton.
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 Roxton’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 Roxton: 8.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
8.2% of tested homes around Roxton were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Monteregie health region, Roxton included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Quebec has 8.2% over 200 Bq/m³; Roxton’s area has 8.2%, much the same.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Roxton with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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 Roxton; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Roxton
Alerts for Roxton 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 Roxton to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Roxton’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roxton | Low | $0.077 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Roxton Falls 1,399 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.058 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Joachim-de-Shefford 1,552 · 9.8 km | Low | $0.057 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Acton Vale 7,945 · 11 km | Low | $0.093 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Roxton Pond 4,884 · 12 km | Low | $0.071 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Valérien-de-Milton 1,794 · 12 km | Low | $0.098 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Upton 2,149 · 16 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | Yes |
Roxton’s low band tops its neighbours; Roxton Falls is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Roxton faces
What to do about the hazards Roxton faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Roxton’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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’s.
- 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 floods.
- 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 sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Roxton
How big is the earthquake risk in Roxton?
Expected earthquake damage in Roxton comes to $0.077 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Roxton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Roxton grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Roxton flood?
Roxton’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Roxton?
Around Roxton, 110 survey homes were tested and 8.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Roxton at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Roxton since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts 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).