Photo: MaillouxJ · CC BY-SA 4.0Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Wildfire is rare near Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford: 0% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.001% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.096 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 8.2% of homes tested in Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s hazards
For Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford grades C+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #124 of 507 in Quebec and #2,045 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.
Little of the land around Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford has burned: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford is 0.001%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest makes up 1.1% of the land within 5 km of Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford and 3.7% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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
In the upper half in Quebec but far from Mistissini (0.31%): Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford ranks 136th of 513, at 0.001% 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford, Gouvernement du Québec’s from 1983, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yamaska-St-Hyacinthe-St-césaire | Gouvernement du Québec | 1983 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford apart in Quebec, where 45% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s homes are at risk.
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-Paul-d'Abbotsford $0.096 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-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s $0.096 is about 3.2 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-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s $0.096 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 26% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford.
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-Paul-d'Abbotsford.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
8.2% of homes tested around Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Near the middle for radon: Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s area 8.2%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford, 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.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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 low area share in Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford 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). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Monteregie health region
Where to get warnings in Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford; 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-Paul-d'Abbotsford 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-Paul-d'Abbotsford
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford | Low | $0.096 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Ange-Gardien 3,100 · 8.2 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Pie 6,085 · 9.3 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Césaire 6,150 · 9.5 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Cécile-de-Milton 2,267 · 11 km | Low | $0.098 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Granby 72,180 · 12 km | Low | $0.090 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Rougemont 2,832 · 13 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | Yes |
Nowhere around Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford burns more: Saint-Pie, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford faces
Practical steps for Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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-Paul-d'Abbotsford sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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-Paul-d'Abbotsford floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford
Is radon a problem in Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford?
8.2% of the 110 homes Health Canada tested around Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford comes to $0.096 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford flood?
Saint-Paul-d'Abbotsford’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
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).