Photo: Gordalmighty · CC BY-SA 3.0Val-Joli is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Ville de Sherbrooke
For Val-Joli, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Val-Joli sits near the middle: $0.053 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon around Val-Joli is ordinary for Canada: 7.3% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Val-Joli a grade of B−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Val-Joli’s hazards
For Val-Joli, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Val-Joli faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Val-Joli: B−
The grade weighs Val-Joli’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 55 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Val-Joli has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Val-Joli’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Val-Joli’s 0.000% is in the low band.
Val-Joli’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 5.0 km away.
30% of the land within 5 km of Val-Joli is forest fuel, close to the 34% 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
To three decimals the burn rate around Val-Joli is zero, as for 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec, while 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Val-Joli, burning rounds to zero.
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.
2 flood studies cover Val-Joli, the newest from Ville de Sherbrooke
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Val-Joli: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
2 studies on the inventory touch Val-Joli, the newest Ville de Sherbrooke’s from 2010, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sherbrooke Zones inondables | Ville de Sherbrooke | 2010 | final |
| Richmond-Lennoxville | Gouvernement du Québec | 1981 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Val-Joli is one of the 45% of towns in Quebec with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping around Val-Joli has come in steps: 2 studies from the 1980s to the 2010s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Val-Joli.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Val-Joli.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Val-Joli: $0.053 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Earthquake losses in Val-Joli, $0.053 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (1.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Val-Joli expects less, $0.053, and La Pocatière the most, $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.
30% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Val-Joli, 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 Val-Joli.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Val-Joli: 7.3% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Val-Joli’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 7.3% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Quebec has 8.2% over 200 Bq/m³; Val-Joli’s area has 7.3%, much the same.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Val-Joli is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Val-Joli’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Estrie health region
Where to get warnings in Val-Joli
Alerts for Val-Joli 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 Val-Joli to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Val-Joli’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Val-Joli | Low | $0.053 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Saint-Claude 1,167 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.056 | 7.3% | None listed |
| Windsor 5,368 · 4.3 km | Low | $0.044 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Saint-François-Xavier-de-Brompton 2,650 · 9.0 km | Low | $0.047 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Saint-Georges-de-Windsor 1,034 · 14 km | Low | $0.051 | 7.3% | None listed |
| Stoke 3,272 · 15 km | Low | $0.039 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Cleveland 1,624 · 17 km | Low | $0.041 | 7.3% | Yes |
Stoke burns a little more than Val-Joli, 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 Val-Joli faces
What to do about the hazards Val-Joli 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
- 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 Val-Joli.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Val-Joli’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Val-Joli, 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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Val-Joli takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Val-Joli
Is Val-Joli at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Val-Joli since 1986 (last in 2015); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Val-Joli?
Around Val-Joli, 55 survey homes were tested and 7.3% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Val-Joli?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Val-Joli’s buildings lose $0.053 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Val-Joli flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Val-Joli; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Val-Joli’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Val-Joli grades B− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
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).