Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Saint-Zotique: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 8.2% of tested homes
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Saint-Zotique’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.001% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.11 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Saint-Zotique grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Saint-Zotique’s hazards
For Saint-Zotique, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Saint-Zotique 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-Zotique: C
Seismic risk and radon set Saint-Zotique’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #137 of 507 in Quebec and #2,081 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Saint-Zotique has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Saint-Zotique’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Saint-Zotique fire takes 0.001% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Saint-Zotique’s homes came within 7.3 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest fuel is scarce around Saint-Zotique: 0% of the land within 5 km, 3.1% 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 513
Saint-Zotique burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 513 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-Zotique 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.
No flood study is listed for Saint-Zotique
Flood studies whose area touches Saint-Zotique, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Saint-Zotique on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Saint-Zotique has none.
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-Zotique’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.”
High seismic risk in Saint-Zotique: $0.11 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.
Roughly 3.8 times the typical $0.030: Saint-Zotique’s $0.11 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Saint-Zotique at $0.11 beside a median in Quebec of $0.14, with La Pocatière on top 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.
24% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Saint-Zotique, which places it in the upper third.
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).
For Saint-Zotique the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
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-Zotique: 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. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Monteregie health region
Saint-Zotique’s area, at 8.2%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Saint-Zotique, 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-Zotique’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.
Whatever Saint-Zotique’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Saint-Zotique
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Saint-Zotique; 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-Zotique, 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-Zotique’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Zotique | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Les Coteaux 6,294 · 4.7 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Rivière-Beaudette 2,806 · 6.8 km | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Barbe 1,993 · 7.6 km | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Polycarpe 2,549 · 7.9 km | Low | $0.18 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Coteau-du-Lac 7,839 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Salaberry-de-Valleyfield 47,002 · 11 km | Low | $0.19 | 8.2% | None listed |
Sainte-Barbe burns a little more than Saint-Zotique, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Saint-Zotique faces
Practical steps for Saint-Zotique’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Saint-Zotique.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Saint-Zotique, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Saint-Zotique’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Saint-Zotique takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Saint-Zotique
How is Saint-Zotique’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Saint-Zotique grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Saint-Zotique at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Saint-Zotique’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
Does Saint-Zotique flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Saint-Zotique, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How big is the earthquake risk in Saint-Zotique?
Expected earthquake damage in Saint-Zotique comes to $0.11 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Saint-Zotique?
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-Zotique.
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).