Photo: Fairchild Aviation Limited (d'après l'inscription dans le coin inférieur droit de la photo) · Public domainFlood mapping exists for Shawinigan: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Burn scars are few around Shawinigan, with 0.3% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.01% a year). Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.090 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Shawinigan a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Shawinigan’s hazards
For Shawinigan, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Shawinigan faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Shawinigan: A−
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Shawinigan with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #18 of 507 in Quebec and #865 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 58 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Shawinigan: 0.3% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Shawinigan’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Shawinigan’s 0.01% is in the low band.
Forest fuel covers 30% of the land close to Shawinigan and 39% across 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 Shawinigan burns at 0.01% a year, the 20th 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.
Some fire is mapped around Shawinigan, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
A flood study covers Shawinigan, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Shawinigan, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Gouvernement du Québec holds the flood mapping that covers Shawinigan (2005), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shawinigan-St-Gérard-des-Laurentides | Gouvernement du Québec | 2005 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Shawinigan 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 mapping is shown for Shawinigan 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 Shawinigan $0.090 per $1,000 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; Shawinigan loses $0.090, 3 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.090, Shawinigan 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.
27% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Shawinigan, 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 Shawinigan.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs low around Shawinigan: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Shawinigan’s area has fewer, 0%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Shawinigan than in most towns in Quebec: 0% against 8.2%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Shawinigan; 63% 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Shawinigan, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Shawinigan
Alerts for Shawinigan 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. |
Evacuation orders for Shawinigan come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Shawinigan’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shawinigan | Low | $0.090 | 0% | Yes |
| Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel 6,613 · 11 km | Low | $0.098 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Boniface 5,405 · 11 km | Low | $0.090 | 0% | Yes |
| Hérouxville 1,570 · 12 km | Low | $0.12 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Mathieu-du-Parc 1,598 · 13 km | Low | $0.053 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Étienne-des-Grès 4,675 · 16 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Narcisse 1,848 · 19 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Shawinigan has the most fire on record (low); Saint-Mathieu-du-Parc follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Shawinigan faces
What to do about the hazards Shawinigan 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Shawinigan’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Shawinigan, 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. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Shawinigan is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Shawinigan.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Shawinigan
Does Shawinigan flood?
There is flood mapping for Shawinigan on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Shawinigan at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.3% of the land around Shawinigan since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Shawinigan’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Shawinigan grades A− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Shawinigan?
About $0.090 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Shawinigan.
Is radon a problem in Shawinigan?
Around Shawinigan, 58 survey homes were tested and 0% 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).