Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0Flood mapping exists for Valcourt: 1 on record, latest by Gouvernement du Québec
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Valcourt, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Seismic risk in Valcourt sits near the middle: $0.054 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Valcourt’s survey area, 7.3% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Valcourt grades B− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Valcourt’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Valcourt: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Valcourt faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Valcourt grades B− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Valcourt’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 55 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.
Little of the land around Valcourt has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Valcourt’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Valcourt’s 0.000% is in the low band.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 21 km from Valcourt’s homes, none within 5 km.
Forest crowds in on Valcourt: 34% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, more than the 26% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Valcourt, as for 145 of the 514 towns in Quebec; Mistissini tops the list 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Valcourt, 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Valcourt (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Valcourt: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Valcourt is Gouvernement du Québec’s, dated 2004; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valcourt | Gouvernement du Québec | 2004 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Valcourt 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 is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Valcourt’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Valcourt: $0.054 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
1.8 times the typical $0.030: Valcourt’s $0.054 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Quebec: Valcourt’s $0.054 against a median of $0.14; La Pocatière has $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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 30% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Valcourt.
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 model counts damage to Valcourt’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
7.3% of homes tested around Valcourt are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Estrie health region: radon tests
The survey area of Valcourt reads 7.3%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Quebec has 8.2% over 200 Bq/m³; Valcourt’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.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Valcourt, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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 share describes the area, not a house: in Valcourt as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Valcourt
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Valcourt; 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 Valcourt, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Valcourt’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valcourt | Low | $0.054 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Valcourt 2,203 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.041 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Racine 1,441 · 10 km | Low | $0.041 | 7.3% | None listed |
| Saint-Joachim-de-Shefford 1,552 · 15 km | Low | $0.057 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Roxton 1,180 · 16 km | Low | $0.077 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Roxton Falls 1,399 · 16 km | Low | $0.058 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Durham-Sud 1,041 · 17 km | Low | $0.067 | 0% | None listed |
Valcourt (low) has the heaviest fire record of Valcourt’s neighbours, and Valcourt (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Valcourt faces
Practical steps for Valcourt’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.
- 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
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Valcourt’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. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Valcourt without grading them.
- 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 Valcourt’s.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Valcourt until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Valcourt
Does Valcourt flood?
A flood study covers Valcourt on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is radon a problem in Valcourt?
The area’s survey found 7.3% of 55 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Valcourt.
How is Valcourt’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Valcourt’s Hazard risk grade is B−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Valcourt?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Valcourt $0.054 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Valcourt at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Valcourt’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
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).