Photo: Vintotal · CC BY-SA 3.0Senneterre is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Gouvernement du Québec
Wildfire is a moderate presence around Senneterre: 2.6% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.06% a year, short of the band that counts against Risk. Seismic risk in Senneterre sits near the middle: $0.028 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, just 4.3% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Senneterre a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Senneterre’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Senneterre: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Senneterre faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Senneterre: A−
Two inputs always count for Senneterre, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #13 of 507 in Quebec and #686 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 69 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Fire reaches the land around Senneterre: 0% within 5 km, 2.6% within 25 km
Past fire around Senneterre’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Senneterre is 0.06%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
Senneterre’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 6.3 km away.
There is forest near Senneterre’s homes (62% within 5 km) and more of it further out (72% 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
The land around Senneterre burns at 0.06% a year, the 8th highest rate of 513 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops it 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.
Senneterre is in the moderate band, which holds 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 2.1% 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.
Senneterre is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Senneterre: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
2 studies on the inventory touch Senneterre, the newest Gouvernement du Québec’s from 2012, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senneterre | Gouvernement du Québec | 2012 | final |
| Senneterre | Gouvernement du Québec | 2007 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, but Senneterre has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping around Senneterre has come in steps: 2 studies from the 2000s to the 2010s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Senneterre.
Flood mapping is shown for Senneterre to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Senneterre $0.028 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.028 per $1,000, Senneterre’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.9 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Senneterre’s $0.028 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 51% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Senneterre.
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).
The loss is to Senneterre’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Senneterre: 4.3% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Abitibi-Temiscamingue health region
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Senneterre’s area has fewer, 4.3%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Quebec (8.2%), the area around Senneterre has fewer high tests: 4.3%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Senneterre is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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.
The survey sampled homes around Senneterre; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Senneterre
Alerts for Senneterre 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Senneterre to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Senneterre
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senneterre | Moderate | $0.028 | 4.3% | Yes |
| Senneterre 1,189 · 15 km | Moderate | $0.023 | 4.3% | Yes |
Senneterre’s moderate band tops its neighbours; Senneterre is next (moderate).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Senneterre faces
What to do about the hazards Senneterre faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Senneterre’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Senneterre’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Senneterre.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Senneterre takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Senneterre
Is Senneterre at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 2.6% of the land around Senneterre since 1986 (last in 2023); at moderate, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Senneterre?
Around Senneterre, 69 survey homes were tested and 4.3% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Senneterre flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Senneterre; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Senneterre’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Senneterre A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Senneterre?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Senneterre $0.028 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).