Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0Hazards in Sainte-Pétronille: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 8.8% of tested homes
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Sainte-Pétronille, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.11 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Sainte-Pétronille grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Sainte-Pétronille’s hazards
For Sainte-Pétronille, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Sainte-Pétronille faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sainte-Pétronille grades C for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Sainte-Pétronille’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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-Pétronille has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Sainte-Pétronille’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.000% of the land a year around Sainte-Pétronille, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Sainte-Pétronille’s homes came within 8.7 km, never inside 5 km.
The forest starts beyond town: 4.9% of the land within 5 km of Sainte-Pétronille’s homes is forest fuel, against 18% 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
Among the 514 towns in Quebec, Mistissini burns fastest (0.31% a year); Sainte-Pétronille is with the 145 near zero.
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.
Sainte-Pétronille shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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-Pétronille
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Sainte-Pétronille: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
There is no study for Sainte-Pétronille 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 Sainte-Pétronille has none.
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-Pétronille.
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-Pétronille’s costliest hazard: $0.11 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 3.7 times the typical $0.030: Sainte-Pétronille’s $0.11 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.11, Sainte-Pétronille 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.
25% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Sainte-Pétronille, 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 Sainte-Pétronille 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-Pétronille: 8.8% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Capitale-Nationale health region: radon tests
Near the middle for radon: Sainte-Pétronille’s area 8.8%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
2.5% of tests around Sainte-Pétronille passed 600 Bq/m³; over 200, its 8.8% matches 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.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Sainte-Pétronille’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 Sainte-Pétronille’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-Pétronille
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Sainte-Pétronille; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Sainte-Pétronille come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Sainte-Pétronille
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sainte-Pétronille | Low | $0.11 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Chutes-Montmorency 16,273 · 4.7 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Vieux-Bourg 14,774 · 5.4 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Pierre-de-l'Île-d'Orléans 1,704 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Boischatel 9,250 · 6.5 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.8% | Yes |
| Saint-Laurent-de-l'Île-d'Orléans 1,659 · 7.3 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
| Vieux-Moulin 15,935 · 7.4 km | Low | $0.14 | 8.8% | None listed |
Sainte-Pétronille’s low band tops its neighbours; Chutes-Montmorency is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Sainte-Pétronille faces
Practical steps for Sainte-Pétronille’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
- 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-Pétronille.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Sainte-Pétronille takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Sainte-Pétronille’s included.
- 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-Pétronille.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sainte-Pétronille
Is radon a problem in Sainte-Pétronille?
The area’s survey found 8.8% of 160 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Sainte-Pétronille.
How is Sainte-Pétronille’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sainte-Pétronille grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sainte-Pétronille?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Sainte-Pétronille $0.11 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Sainte-Pétronille at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Sainte-Pétronille’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
Does Sainte-Pétronille flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Sainte-Pétronille, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
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).