Photo: SamuelFreli · CC BY-SA 3.0Sainte-Madeleine’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 8.2% of area homes over the radon guideline
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Sainte-Madeleine, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Seismic risk runs high: $0.16 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Sainte-Madeleine a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Sainte-Madeleine’s hazards
For Sainte-Madeleine, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Sainte-Madeleine 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-Madeleine: C
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Sainte-Madeleine with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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.
Few fires near Sainte-Madeleine: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Sainte-Madeleine’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Around Sainte-Madeleine fire takes 0.001% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
The 5 km ring around Sainte-Madeleine’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 5.4 km out.
With 0.4% forest fuel within 5 km and 1.6% within 25 km, the land around Sainte-Madeleine gives a fire little to burn.
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
Sainte-Madeleine burns at 0.001% a year, 136th of 514 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 Sainte-Madeleine 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 Sainte-Madeleine
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Sainte-Madeleine: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Sainte-Madeleine, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Sainte-Madeleine has none.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Sainte-Madeleine.
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.”
Shaking is Sainte-Madeleine’s costliest hazard: $0.16 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Sainte-Madeleine loses $0.16, 5.2 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Quebec: Sainte-Madeleine’s $0.16 against $0.14; La Pocatière reaches $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: 15% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Sainte-Madeleine.
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-Madeleine 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).
8.2% of homes tested around Sainte-Madeleine are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
8.2% of tested homes around Sainte-Madeleine were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%. Sainte-Madeleine shares its radon tests numbers with the rest of the Monteregie health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Sainte-Madeleine 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.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Sainte-Madeleine’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.
A low area share in Sainte-Madeleine doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Sainte-Madeleine
Alerts for Sainte-Madeleine 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Sainte-Madeleine are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Sainte-Madeleine’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-Madeleine | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Sainte-Marie-Madeleine 2,940 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | Yes |
| La Présentation 2,696 · 7.2 km | Low | $0.15 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Mont-Saint-Hilaire 19,447 · 8.1 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu 1,867 · 9.1 km | Low | $0.16 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Jean-Baptiste 3,332 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Beloeil 25,240 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
Saint-Jean-Baptiste burns a little more than Sainte-Madeleine, 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 Sainte-Madeleine faces
What to do about the hazards Sainte-Madeleine 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Sainte-Madeleine.
- 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-Madeleine.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Sainte-Madeleine is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Sainte-Madeleine’s included.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sainte-Madeleine
How is Sainte-Madeleine’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Sainte-Madeleine C, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sainte-Madeleine?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Sainte-Madeleine $0.16 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Sainte-Madeleine at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Sainte-Madeleine since 1986 (last in 2021); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Sainte-Madeleine flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Sainte-Madeleine’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Sainte-Madeleine?
Around Sainte-Madeleine, 110 survey homes were tested and 8.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).