Photo: Challwa · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for Saint-Valérien-de-Milton: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Around Saint-Valérien-de-Milton, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.098 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is about average around Saint-Valérien-de-Milton: 8.2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Saint-Valérien-de-Milton grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Saint-Valérien-de-Milton: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Saint-Valérien-de-Milton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Saint-Valérien-de-Milton grades C+ for hazard risk
For Saint-Valérien-de-Milton, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Saint-Valérien-de-Milton: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Saint-Valérien-de-Milton each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s homes came within 15 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest fuel rises from 1.9% within 5 km of Saint-Valérien-de-Milton to 5.2% within 25 km: the fuel lies away from homes.
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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Saint-Valérien-de-Milton, as for 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops the list 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Saint-Valérien-de-Milton, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
Saint-Valérien-de-Milton is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Valérien-de-Milton, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Saint-Valérien-de-Milton the inventory points to Gouvernement du Québec’s 2008 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acton-Vale | Gouvernement du Québec | 2008 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Saint-Valérien-de-Milton has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Saint-Valérien-de-Milton floods.
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-Valérien-de-Milton’s costliest hazard: $0.098 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.
Roughly 3.3 times the typical $0.030: Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s $0.098 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.098, Saint-Valérien-de-Milton is below the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière is 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 26% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Saint-Valérien-de-Milton.
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 model counts damage to Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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-Valérien-de-Milton 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 Monteregie health region: radon tests
Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.2% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Saint-Valérien-de-Milton 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.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’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.
The survey sampled homes around Saint-Valérien-de-Milton; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Saint-Valérien-de-Milton
Alerts for Saint-Valérien-de-Milton 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. |
Evacuation orders for Saint-Valérien-de-Milton come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Saint-Valérien-de-Milton
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Valérien-de-Milton | Low | $0.098 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Roxton Pond 4,884 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.071 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Sainte-Cécile-de-Milton 2,267 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.098 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Upton 2,149 · 11 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Liboire 3,123 · 12 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Dominique 3,062 · 12 km | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Roxton 1,180 · 12 km | Low | $0.077 | 8.2% | Yes |
The fire record around Saint-Dominique is a touch heavier than Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Valérien-de-Milton faces
Practical steps for Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’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
- 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-Valérien-de-Milton.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Saint-Valérien-de-Milton is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Valérien-de-Milton
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Valérien-de-Milton?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Valérien-de-Milton comes to $0.098 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Valérien-de-Milton?
The area’s survey found 8.2% of 110 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Saint-Valérien-de-Milton.
How is Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Saint-Valérien-de-Milton at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Valérien-de-Milton’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Does Saint-Valérien-de-Milton flood?
There is flood mapping for Saint-Valérien-de-Milton on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
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).