Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 4.0Wildfire low, radon 10%: how Saint-Hippolyte stands on hazards
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Hippolyte: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.002% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.085 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Saint-Hippolyte a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Hippolyte’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Hippolyte: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Hippolyte faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Hippolyte grades C for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Saint-Hippolyte’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #261 of 507 in Quebec and #2,213 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 78 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Saint-Hippolyte has burned: 0.1% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Hippolyte’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.002% burned a year, Saint-Hippolyte is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
There is forest near Saint-Hippolyte’s homes (19% within 5 km) and more of it further out (28% 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
At 0.002% a year, Saint-Hippolyte is near the top in Quebec: 35th of 513, behind Mistissini (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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Saint-Hippolyte burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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.
No flood study is listed for Saint-Hippolyte
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Hippolyte, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Saint-Hippolyte, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Saint-Hippolyte is not among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Saint-Hippolyte to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Saint-Hippolyte $0.085 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.
Saint-Hippolyte’s $0.085 is about 2.8 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
Below the middle in Quebec: Saint-Hippolyte’s $0.085 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 27% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Saint-Hippolyte.
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 Saint-Hippolyte’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).
10% of homes tested around Saint-Hippolyte are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Laurentides health region: radon tests
Saint-Hippolyte’s survey area reads 10% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint-Hippolyte, 10% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.3% over 600, against a median of 8.2% in Quebec.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Saint-Hippolyte is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Saint-Hippolyte 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).
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Hippolyte
Alerts for Saint-Hippolyte 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Saint-Hippolyte are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Hippolyte
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Hippolyte | Low | $0.085 | 10% | None listed |
| Prévost 14,275 · 6.3 km | Low | $0.088 | 10% | Yes |
| Sainte-Sophie 19,467 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.12 | 10% | None listed |
| Sainte-Anne-des-Lacs 4,080 · 10 km | Low | $0.10 | 10% | None listed |
| Piedmont 3,667 · 10 km | Low | $0.072 | 10% | None listed |
| Sainte-Adèle 15,216 · 12 km | Low | $0.072 | 10% | Yes |
| Saint-Jérôme 85,160 · 13 km | Low | $0.15 | 10% | Yes |
Saint-Hippolyte’s low band tops its neighbours; Sainte-Sophie is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Hippolyte faces
Practical steps for Saint-Hippolyte’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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Saint-Hippolyte 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 Saint-Hippolyte.
- 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 Saint-Hippolyte’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Saint-Hippolyte’s 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 Saint-Hippolyte
Does Saint-Hippolyte flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Saint-Hippolyte (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Saint-Hippolyte at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Saint-Hippolyte’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Hippolyte?
About $0.085 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Saint-Hippolyte.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Hippolyte?
10% of the 78 homes Health Canada tested around Saint-Hippolyte topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Saint-Hippolyte’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Hippolyte grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers 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).