Photo: Pymouss · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for Sainte-Catherine: 2 on record, latest by MRC Roussillon
Wildfire is rare near Sainte-Catherine: 0% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.001% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.22 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon around Sainte-Catherine is ordinary for Canada: 8.2% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Sainte-Catherine a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Sainte-Catherine’s hazards
For Sainte-Catherine, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Sainte-Catherine faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Sainte-Catherine: C−
Two inputs always count for Sainte-Catherine, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #381 of 507 in Quebec and #2,360 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 Sainte-Catherine has burned: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Sainte-Catherine’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Sainte-Catherine burns at 0.001% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Around Sainte-Catherine the forest is thin or far off: 0.8% of the land within 5 km and 0.5% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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-Catherine 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Sainte-Catherine 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.
2 flood studies cover Sainte-Catherine, the newest from MRC Roussillon
Flood studies whose area touches Sainte-Catherine, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Sainte-Catherine the inventory points to 2 studies, most recently MRC Roussillon’s in 2001.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roussillon-St-Régis-St-Pierre-Portage | MRC Roussillon | 2001 | final |
| Roussillon-Tortue | MRC Roussillon | 2000 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Sainte-Catherine 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-Catherine’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.
High seismic risk in Sainte-Catherine: $0.22 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Sainte-Catherine loses $0.22, 7.4 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.22, Sainte-Catherine is above the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière has the most 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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than Sainte-Catherine: 7.4% of them.
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 Sainte-Catherine 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).
Radon about average around Sainte-Catherine: 8.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Monteregie health region: radon tests
Sainte-Catherine’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
Sainte-Catherine’s area, at 8.2%, is close to the median in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Sainte-Catherine’s 5–10% band, which holds 37%.
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 Sainte-Catherine’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 Sainte-Catherine
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Sainte-Catherine; 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-Catherine, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Sainte-Catherine
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sainte-Catherine | Low | $0.22 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Delson 8,802 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.21 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Constant 32,124 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.22 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Candiac 24,920 · 4.1 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sault-Saint-Louis 47,270 · 5.7 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Desmarchais-Crawford 18,505 · 5.9 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Ville-Émard 13,826 · 6.8 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Sainte-Catherine (low); Delson comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Sainte-Catherine faces
What to do about the hazards Sainte-Catherine 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.
- 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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Sainte-Catherine, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Sainte-Catherine takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Sainte-Catherine’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Sainte-Catherine.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sainte-Catherine
Does Sainte-Catherine flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Sainte-Catherine; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Sainte-Catherine’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Sainte-Catherine C−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Sainte-Catherine?
Around Sainte-Catherine, 110 survey homes were tested and 8.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sainte-Catherine?
Expected earthquake damage in Sainte-Catherine comes to $0.22 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Sainte-Catherine at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Sainte-Catherine since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
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).