Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for Upton: 2 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Upton, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.11 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is about average around Upton: 8.2% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Upton a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Upton’s hazards
For Upton, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Upton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Upton grades C for hazard risk
For Upton, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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.
Few fires near Upton: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Upton’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Upton in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
No fire has burned within 5 km of Upton’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 14 km away.
Close to Upton there is little to burn (0.4% forest fuel within 5 km), but 5.3% of the land within 25 km is forest.
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
Near-zero burning puts Upton with 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec, far below Mistissini 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Upton is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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.
Upton is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
Flood studies whose area touches Upton, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Upton the inventory points to 2 studies, most recently Gouvernement du Québec’s in 2008.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acton-Vale | Gouvernement du Québec | 2008 | final |
| Upton | Gouvernement du Québec | 2008 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 45% of towns in Quebec have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Upton is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Upton’s homes are at risk.
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 Upton $0.11 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.
Upton’s $0.11 is about 3.7 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Upton at $0.11 beside a median in Quebec of $0.14, with La Pocatière on top 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.
24% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Upton, 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Upton is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
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 Upton: 8.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
8.2% of tested homes around Upton were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Upton, 8.2% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Upton, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are 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.
A low area share in Upton 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). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Monteregie health region
Where to get warnings in Upton
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Upton; 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 Upton, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Upton
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upton | Low | $0.11 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Liboire 3,123 · 5.9 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Acton Vale 7,945 · 8.9 km | Low | $0.093 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Sainte-Hélène-de-Bagot 1,887 · 9.9 km | Low | $0.13 | 8.2% | None listed |
| Saint-Valérien-de-Milton 1,794 · 11 km | Low | $0.098 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Théodore-d'Acton 1,650 · 11 km | Low | $0.099 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Simon 1,474 · 14 km | Low | $0.12 | 8.2% | Yes |
Saint-Liboire (low) has the heaviest fire record of Upton’s neighbours, and Upton (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Upton faces
Practical steps for Upton’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Upton sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Upton, 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 Upton floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Upton’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Upton
How big is the earthquake risk in Upton?
About $0.11 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Upton.
Is Upton at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Upton’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Upton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Upton’s Hazard risk grade is C, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Upton flood?
Upton’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Upton?
8.2% of the 110 homes Health Canada tested around Upton topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).