Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Saint-Michel: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 8.2% of tested homes
Wildfire barely registers for Saint-Michel, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.18 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Saint-Michel grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Michel’s hazards
For Saint-Michel, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Michel faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Saint-Michel: C−
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Saint-Michel with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #345 of 507 in Quebec and #2,312 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Saint-Michel: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Michel’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.001% of the land a year around Saint-Michel, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 13 km from Saint-Michel’s homes, none within 5 km.
Only 3.7% of the land within 25 km of Saint-Michel is forest fuel, and 0.5% close in.
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
Saint-Michel sits mid-table in Quebec: 136th of 513 towns, at 0.001% a year, well 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.
Some fire is mapped around Saint-Michel, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Saint-Michel
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Michel, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Saint-Michel, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Saint-Michel has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 58% across Canada.
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 Saint-Michel’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.”
Shaking is Saint-Michel’s costliest hazard: $0.18 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; Saint-Michel loses $0.18, 6.1 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Saint-Michel’s $0.18 tops the median in Quebec, $0.14, though La Pocatière reaches $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: 13% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Saint-Michel.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Saint-Michel.
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 Saint-Michel: 8.2% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Monteregie health region
At 8.2% over the guideline, the area around Saint-Michel is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint-Michel, 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.
A middling share of high tests puts Saint-Michel 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.
A low area share in Saint-Michel doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Saint-Michel
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Michel; 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-Michel, 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)
How Saint-Michel’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Michel | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Rémi 9,557 · 4.3 km | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Édouard 1,438 · 5.1 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Patrice-de-Sherrington 1,996 · 8.4 km | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Mathieu 2,642 · 9.5 km | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Isidore 2,889 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Urbain-Premier 1,380 · 12 km | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Saint-Michel has the most fire on record (low); Saint-Rémi follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Michel faces
What to do about the hazards Saint-Michel 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Saint-Michel’s included.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Saint-Michel until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Saint-Michel without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Saint-Michel.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Michel
Is radon a problem in Saint-Michel?
Around Saint-Michel, 110 survey homes were tested and 8.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Saint-Michel flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Saint-Michel’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Michel?
About $0.18 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Saint-Michel.
Is Saint-Michel at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Saint-Michel since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Saint-Michel’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Michel’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).