Photo: Charny · CC BY-SA 3.0On hazards, Sainte-Félicité comes out behind 85% of Canadian towns
Fire has left almost no mark near Sainte-Félicité: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.070 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is higher than usual: 14% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Sainte-Félicité a grade of D, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Sainte-Félicité’s hazards
For Sainte-Félicité, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Sainte-Félicité 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-Félicité: D
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Sainte-Félicité with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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 Sainte-Félicité has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Sainte-Félicité’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Sainte-Félicité burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Sainte-Félicité’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 24 km away.
There is forest near Sainte-Félicité’s homes (66% within 5 km) and more of it further out (76% 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 514
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Sainte-Félicité, 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%; Sainte-Félicité, 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Sainte-Félicité
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Sainte-Félicité: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Sainte-Félicité has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Sainte-Félicité; in Quebec, 45% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Sainte-Félicité.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Sainte-Félicité $0.070 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.070 per $1,000, Sainte-Félicité carries roughly 2.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.070, Sainte-Félicité 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.
28% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Sainte-Félicité, 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Sainte-Félicité.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Sainte-Félicité: 14% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 14% over the guideline, the area around Sainte-Félicité beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Bas-Saint-Laurent health region, Sainte-Félicité included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Sainte-Félicité’s area, at 14%, is above the median in Quebec (8.2%), and 1.8% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
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-Félicité 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.
Whatever Sainte-Félicité’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-Félicité
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Sainte-Félicité; 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-Félicité, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Sainte-Félicité
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sainte-Félicité | Low | $0.070 | 14% | None listed |
| Matane 14,180 · 14 km | Low | $0.078 | 14% | Yes |
Nowhere around Sainte-Félicité burns more: Matane, 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 Sainte-Félicité faces
What to do about the hazards Sainte-Félicité 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. For Sainte-Félicité, 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 Sainte-Félicité floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Sainte-Félicité’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Sainte-Félicité sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sainte-Félicité
How is Sainte-Félicité’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Sainte-Félicité D, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Sainte-Félicité?
In Health Canada’s survey, 14% of 171 homes tested in Sainte-Félicité’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sainte-Félicité?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Sainte-Félicité $0.070 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Sainte-Félicité flood?
Nothing is listed for Sainte-Félicité on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Sainte-Félicité at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Sainte-Félicité has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
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).