Photo: Williamborg · Public domainSaint-Ours is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Fire seldom reaches Saint-Ours: since 1986, 0% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.001% a year). Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.15 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon around Saint-Ours is ordinary for Canada: 8.2% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Saint-Ours a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Saint-Ours’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Ours: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Ours faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Ours grades C for hazard risk
The grade weighs Saint-Ours’ seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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.
Few fires near Saint-Ours: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Ours’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.001% of the land around Saint-Ours each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Near or far, forest fuel covers a similar share around Saint-Ours: 6% within 5 km and 4.7% 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
Saint-Ours burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 514 towns in Quebec; the leader, 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Saint-Ours 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.
A flood study covers Saint-Ours, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Ours, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Gouvernement du Québec studied flooding in an area that includes Saint-Ours (1979); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sorel-Chambly | Gouvernement du Québec | 1979 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Saint-Ours among them, below the 58% across Canada.
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-Ours 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
High seismic risk in Saint-Ours: $0.15 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.15 per $1,000, Saint-Ours carries roughly 4.9 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Saint-Ours ($0.15) matches the middle in Quebec ($0.14), far from 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: 20% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Saint-Ours.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Saint-Ours’ figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
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-Ours: 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 Saint-Ours 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, Saint-Ours included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Saint-Ours 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.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Saint-Ours’ 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 share describes the area, not a house: in Saint-Ours as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Ours
Alerts for Saint-Ours 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 Saint-Ours to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Saint-Ours’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Ours | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Roch-de-Richelieu 2,984 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Contrecoeur 10,708 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Victoire-de-Sorel 2,599 · 9.8 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Lanoraie 5,694 · 10 km | Low | $0.13 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Lavaltrie 15,996 · 11 km | Low | $0.15 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu 1,880 · 11 km | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | Yes |
Saint-Roch-de-Richelieu (low) has the heaviest fire record of Saint-Ours’ neighbours, and Saint-Ours (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Ours faces
What to do about the hazards Saint-Ours 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-Ours’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Saint-Ours 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 Saint-Ours sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Saint-Ours’ figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Ours
Is radon a problem in Saint-Ours?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.2% of 110 homes tested in Saint-Ours’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Saint-Ours at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Saint-Ours has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Saint-Ours’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Ours grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Saint-Ours flood?
Saint-Ours’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Ours?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Ours comes to $0.15 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).