Photo: Pierre Bona · CC BY-SA 3.0A flood study covers Saint-Armand: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Saint-Armand, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.11 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is about average around Saint-Armand: 8.2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Saint-Armand a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Armand’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Armand: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Armand faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Armand grades C for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Saint-Armand with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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.
Few fires near Saint-Armand: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Armand’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.000% of the land a year around Saint-Armand, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The 5 km ring around Saint-Armand’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 9.3 km out.
The ring nearest Saint-Armand is the most wooded: 13% forest fuel within 5 km against 6.6% 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
Of the 514 towns in Quebec, 145 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Saint-Armand among them; Mistissini leads at 0.31% a year.
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.
Saint-Armand 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 Saint-Armand (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Armand, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Saint-Armand, Gouvernement du Québec’s from 2004, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brome-Missisquoi-Haut-Richelieu-Vallée-du-Richelieu-Rouville | Gouvernement du Québec | 2004 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Saint-Armand is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Saint-Armand.
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 Saint-Armand $0.11 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Saint-Armand loses $0.11, 3.7 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Quebec peaks in La Pocatière ($0.48); Saint-Armand, at $0.11, is below the median of $0.14.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
25% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Saint-Armand, 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 Saint-Armand’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 Saint-Armand: 8.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Monteregie health region: radon tests
8.2% of tested homes around Saint-Armand were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint-Armand, 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.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Saint-Armand’s 5–10% band, which holds 37%.
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 Saint-Armand; 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 Saint-Armand
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Armand; 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. |
For fires near Saint-Armand, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Armand
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Armand | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Venise-en-Québec 2,252 · 9.5 km | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Bedford 2,845 · 11 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Georges-de-Clarenceville 1,274 · 11 km | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Henryville 1,664 · 17 km | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | Yes |
Venise-en-Québec (low) has the heaviest fire record of Saint-Armand’s neighbours, and Saint-Armand (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Armand faces
What to do about the hazards Saint-Armand 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.
- 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Saint-Armand’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 Saint-Armand is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Saint-Armand’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Saint-Armand.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Armand
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Armand?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Armand comes to $0.11 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Saint-Armand’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Armand grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Saint-Armand at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Saint-Armand since 1986 (last in 2021); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Saint-Armand flood?
There is flood mapping for Saint-Armand on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Armand?
Around Saint-Armand, 110 survey homes were tested and 8.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).