Photo: Gaétan Veillette · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Verchères: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Verchères, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.17 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Verchères’ survey area, 8.2% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Verchères grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Verchères’s hazards
For Verchères, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Verchères faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Verchères grades C for hazard risk
For Verchères, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #288 of 507 in Quebec and #2,247 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Wildfire is rare near Verchères: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Verchères’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Verchères burns at 0.001% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Verchères’ homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 11 km away.
Around Verchères the forest is thin or far off: 2% of the land within 5 km and 4.5% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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
In the upper half in Quebec but far from Mistissini (0.31%): Verchères ranks 136th of 513, at 0.001% a year.
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 Verchères, 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 Verchères, from Gouvernement du Québec: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Verchères, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Verchères, Gouvernement du Québec’s from 1996, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varennes-Grondines | Gouvernement du Québec | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Verchères 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 Verchères’ 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.
High seismic risk in Verchères: $0.17 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Verchères’ $0.17 is about 5.5 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
About level with the typical town in Quebec: Verchères’ $0.17 against $0.14; La Pocatière reaches $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.
Verchères sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 14% are higher.
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).
For Verchères the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
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 Verchères: 8.2% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Around Verchères, 8.2% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Monteregie health region, Verchères included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Verchères is ordinary for towns in Quebec: 8.2%, beside a median of 8.2%.
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 Verchères, 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.
Neighbouring homes in Verchères can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Verchères
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Verchères; 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. |
For fires near Verchères, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Verchères’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verchères | Low | $0.17 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Saint-Sulpice 3,688 · 6.2 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Repentigny 91,290 · 7.3 km | Low | $0.20 | 3.9% | Yes |
| L'Assomption 25,126 · 10.0 km | Low | $0.18 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Charlemagne 6,695 · 12 km | Low | $0.16 | 3.9% | Yes |
| Varennes 21,490 · 12 km | Low | $0.20 | 8.2% | Yes |
| Lavaltrie 15,996 · 13 km | Low | $0.15 | 3.9% | Yes |
The fire record around Saint-Sulpice is a touch heavier than Verchères’, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Verchères faces
Practical steps for Verchères’ 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Verchères’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’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 Verchères until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Verchères without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Verchères, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Verchères
How big is the earthquake risk in Verchères?
About $0.17 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Verchères.
Is radon a problem in Verchères?
8.2% of the 110 homes Health Canada tested around Verchères topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Verchères’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Verchères grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Verchères flood?
A flood study covers Verchères on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Verchères at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Verchères’ band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2022), so wildfire doesn’t change its 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).