Photo: Mario Hains · CC BY-SA 3.0A flood study covers Westbury: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Gouvernement du Québec
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Westbury, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% a year. For earthquakes Westbury is middling, $0.051 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, 7.3% of homes tested in Westbury’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Westbury a grade of B, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Westbury’s hazards
For Westbury, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Westbury faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Westbury grades B for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Westbury, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Westbury has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Westbury’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.001% of the land around Westbury each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Westbury’s homes came within 15 km, never inside 5 km.
There is forest near Westbury’s homes (38% within 5 km) and more of it further out (43% 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
At 0.001% a year, Westbury ranks 136th of the 514 towns in Quebec; Mistissini leads 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.
Westbury is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
Gouvernement du Québec has mapped flooding for Westbury (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Westbury, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Westbury, Gouvernement du Québec’s from 1995, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cookshire-East-Angus | Gouvernement du Québec | 1995 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Quebec reaches 45% of towns, Westbury among them, below the 58% across Canada.
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 Westbury’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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Westbury: $0.051 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.
Earthquake losses in Westbury, $0.051 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (1.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.051, Westbury is below the typical town in Quebec ($0.14); La Pocatière is highest 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 30% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Westbury.
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 Westbury 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).
7.3% of homes tested around Westbury are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Estrie health region
Westbury’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
Westbury’s area, at 7.3%, is close to the median in Quebec (8.2%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Westbury’s 5–10% band, which holds 37%.
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 Westbury 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 Westbury
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Westbury; 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 Westbury, 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)
Hazards in the places around Westbury
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Westbury | Low | $0.051 | 7.3% | Yes |
| East Angus 4,261 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.045 | 7.3% | None listed |
| Cookshire-Eaton 5,491 · 9.4 km | Low | $0.040 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Ascot Corner 3,725 · 12 km | Low | $0.044 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Bury 1,243 · 14 km | Low | $0.040 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Stoke 3,272 · 15 km | Low | $0.039 | 7.3% | Yes |
| Dudswell 1,850 · 15 km | Low | $0.044 | 7.3% | Yes |
East Angus (low) has the heaviest fire record of Westbury’s neighbours, and Westbury (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Westbury faces
What to do about the hazards Westbury 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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Westbury, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Westbury’s 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 Westbury until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Westbury without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Westbury
Does Westbury flood?
A flood study covers Westbury on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Westbury?
Expected earthquake damage in Westbury comes to $0.051 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Westbury?
Around Westbury, 55 survey homes were tested and 7.3% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Westbury at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Westbury since 1986 (last in 2015); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Westbury’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Westbury B, 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).