Photo: Fralambert · CC BY-SA 3.0A quiet place for hazards: low wildfire, little earthquake risk, and 0% of tested homes over the radon guideline in Warwick’s area
Around Warwick, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.066 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Warwick grades A− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Warwick’s hazards
For Warwick, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Warwick faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Warwick: A−
The grade weighs Warwick’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #11 of 507 in Quebec and #671 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.
Few fires near Warwick: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Warwick’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.001% of the land near Warwick burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Warwick’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 9.5 km away.
The nearer ring around Warwick is less wooded (8.1% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (23%).
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%): Warwick 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Warwick burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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.
No flood study is listed for Warwick
Flood studies whose area touches Warwick, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Warwick, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Quebec, 45% of towns against 58% nationally, and Warwick has none.
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 Warwick 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.”
High seismic risk in Warwick: $0.066 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Warwick loses $0.066, 2.2 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Quebec expects $0.14 a year in shaking damage; Warwick expects less, $0.066, 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.
29% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Warwick, 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).
For Warwick 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).
Radon runs low around Warwick: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Warwick’s area has fewer, 0%. Warwick shares its radon tests numbers with the rest of the Mauricie et Centre-du-Quebec health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Warwick (0%) than in 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.
Warwick is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% 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.
A low area share in Warwick 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).
Where to get warnings in Warwick
Alerts for Warwick 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 Warwick 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 Warwick’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warwick | Low | $0.066 | 0% | None listed |
| Tingwick 1,567 · 8.6 km | Low | $0.047 | 0% | Yes |
| Saint-Albert 1,744 · 8.9 km | Low | $0.10 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Christophe-d'Arthabaska 3,307 · 9.1 km | Low | $0.054 | 0% | Yes |
| Victoriaville 49,863 · 12 km | Low | $0.11 | 0% | Yes |
| Kingsey Falls 2,072 · 13 km | Low | $0.076 | 0% | None listed |
| Saint-Valère 1,187 · 14 km | Low | $0.10 | 0% | Yes |
Nowhere around Warwick burns more: Saint-Albert, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Warwick faces
What to do about the hazards Warwick 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. For Warwick, 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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Warwick.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Warwick is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Warwick’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Warwick
Is Warwick at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Warwick since 1986 (last in 2022); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Warwick?
Around Warwick, 58 survey homes were tested and 0% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Warwick?
Expected earthquake damage in Warwick comes to $0.066 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Warwick flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Warwick’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How is Warwick’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Warwick A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).