Photo: Anna Frodesiak · Public domainFlood mapping exists for Sainte-Adèle: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Wildfire is rare near Sainte-Adèle: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.001% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.072 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is higher than usual: 10% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Sainte-Adèle grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Sainte-Adèle’s hazards
For Sainte-Adèle, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Sainte-Adèle faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sainte-Adèle grades C for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Sainte-Adèle, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #235 of 507 in Quebec and #2,184 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 78 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Sainte-Adèle: 0.1% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Sainte-Adèle’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.001% of the land around Sainte-Adèle each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Forest fuel is denser close to Sainte-Adèle (40% within 5 km) than further out (33% 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
In the upper half in Quebec but far from Mistissini (0.31%): Sainte-Adèle 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 Sainte-Adèle 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 Sainte-Adèle (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Sainte-Adèle: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Sainte-Adèle is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 2006; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| St-Adèle | Gouvernement du Québec | 2006 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Sainte-Adèle 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 is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Sainte-Adèle’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Sainte-Adèle $0.072 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.072 per $1,000, Sainte-Adèle carries roughly 2.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Sainte-Adèle’s $0.072 sits under the median in Quebec, $0.14, and well under 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 28% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Sainte-Adèle.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Sainte-Adèle is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
10% of homes tested around Sainte-Adèle are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
A higher share than most: 10% of tested homes around Sainte-Adèle, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Laurentides health region, with Sainte-Adèle one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Sainte-Adèle, 10% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.3% 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.
More high tests than most: Sainte-Adèle sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Sainte-Adèle’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Sainte-Adèle
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Sainte-Adèle; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Sainte-Adèle, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Sainte-Adèle’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sainte-Adèle | Low | $0.072 | 10% | Yes |
| Piedmont 3,667 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.072 | 10% | None listed |
| Val-Morin 3,226 · 6.7 km | Low | $0.076 | 10% | None listed |
| Saint-Sauveur 12,112 · 7.8 km | Low | $0.094 | 10% | None listed |
| Val-David 5,920 · 9.3 km | Low | $0.066 | 10% | Yes |
| Morin-Heights 5,086 · 9.5 km | Low | $0.069 | 10% | None listed |
| Sainte-Marguerite-du-Lac-Masson 3,842 · 11 km | Low | $0.083 | 10% | None listed |
The fire record around Saint-Sauveur is a touch heavier than Sainte-Adèle’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 Sainte-Adèle faces
What to do about the hazards Sainte-Adèle 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.
- 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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Sainte-Adèle, 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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Sainte-Adèle.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Sainte-Adèle’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Sainte-Adèle is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sainte-Adèle
Does Sainte-Adèle flood?
There is flood mapping for Sainte-Adèle on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sainte-Adèle?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Sainte-Adèle $0.072 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Sainte-Adèle’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sainte-Adèle grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Sainte-Adèle at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Sainte-Adèle has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Is radon a problem in Sainte-Adèle?
In Health Canada’s survey, 10% of 78 homes tested in Sainte-Adèle’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).