Photo: Guillaumelandry · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazard risk in Saint-Pacôme is higher than in 94% of Canadian towns
Little of the land around Saint-Pacôme has burned: 0.3% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.008% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.30 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is higher than usual: 14% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Saint-Pacôme grades D for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Pacôme’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Pacôme: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Pacôme faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Pacôme grades D for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Saint-Pacôme’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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 Saint-Pacôme has burned: 1.8% within 5 km, 0.3% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Saint-Pacôme’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.008% of the land a year, Saint-Pacôme’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The nearer ring around Saint-Pacôme is less wooded (32% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (61%).
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
The land around Saint-Pacôme burns at 0.008% a year, the 21st highest rate of 514 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops it at 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Saint-Pacôme among them, though its rate is above zero; 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.
Flooding around Saint-Pacôme is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Gouvernement du Québec
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Saint-Pacôme: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Saint-Pacôme the inventory points to 2 studies, most recently Gouvernement du Québec’s in 2005.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rivière-Ouelle | Gouvernement du Québec | 2005 | final |
| St-Pacôme | Gouvernement du Québec | 2004 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Saint-Pacôme has one.
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-Pacôme.
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 Saint-Pacôme’s costliest hazard: $0.30 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 10.1 times the typical $0.030: Saint-Pacôme’s $0.30 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Quebec: Saint-Pacôme’s $0.30 against a median of $0.14, with La Pocatière highest at $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.
Only 6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Saint-Pacôme.
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-Pacôme’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).
Test for radon in Saint-Pacôme: 14% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Saint-Pacôme’s area, at 14%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint-Pacôme, 14% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.8% 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.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Saint-Pacôme, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Saint-Pacôme only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Bas-Saint-Laurent health region
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Pacôme
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Pacôme; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Saint-Pacôme come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Pacôme
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Pacôme | Low | $0.30 | 14% | Yes |
| Rivière-Ouelle 1,014 · 6.6 km | Low | $0.48 | 14% | Yes |
| Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière 1,635 · 7.0 km | Low | $0.34 | 14% | None listed |
| La Pocatière 4,206 · 7.7 km | Low | $0.48 | 14% | None listed |
| Mont-Carmel 1,191 · 8.9 km | Low | $0.25 | 14% | None listed |
| Saint-Pascal 3,516 · 17 km | Low | $0.34 | 14% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Saint-Pacôme has the most fire on record (low); Rivière-Ouelle follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Pacôme faces
Practical steps for Saint-Pacôme’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.
- 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
- 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-Pacôme until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Saint-Pacôme without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Saint-Pacôme’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 Saint-Pacôme’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Pacôme
How is Saint-Pacôme’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Saint-Pacôme D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Saint-Pacôme flood?
A flood study covers Saint-Pacôme on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Pacôme?
The area’s survey found 14% of 171 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Saint-Pacôme.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Pacôme?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Saint-Pacôme’s buildings lose $0.30 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Saint-Pacôme at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Pacôme’s low band (0.3% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
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).