Photo: abdallahh · CC BY 2.0Westmount’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 6.8% of area homes over the radon guideline
Little of the land around Westmount has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.12 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Westmount a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Westmount’s hazards
For Westmount, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Westmount faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Westmount: C+
Seismic risk and radon set Westmount’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #118 of 507 in Quebec and #1,861 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The radon share rests on 74 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.
Wildfire is rare near Westmount: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Westmount’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.001% of the land a year around Westmount, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Westmount’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 8.5 km away.
Little near Westmount’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0.1% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 0.5% 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 513
At 0.001% a year, Westmount ranks 136th of the 513 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Westmount among them, though its rate is above zero; 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.
No flood study is listed for Westmount
Flood studies whose area touches Westmount, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Westmount on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Westmount; in Quebec, 45% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Westmount.
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 Westmount: $0.12 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.
Westmount’s $0.12 is about 4.1 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
Shaking damage around Westmount runs at $0.12 a year, near the $0.14 of the typical town in Quebec; 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 23% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Westmount.
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 Westmount.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Westmount: 6.8% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Westmount’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 6.8% 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; Westmount’s area has 6.8%, much the same.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Westmount, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are higher.
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 Westmount 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). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Montreal health region
Where to get warnings in Westmount
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Westmount; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Westmount come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Westmount
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Westmount | Low | $0.12 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Saint-Henri 17,309 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Montagne 28,569 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Côte-Saint-Antoine 20,415 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Édouard-Montpetit 20,601 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Snowdon 22,511 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
| Upper Lachine 21,130 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.8% | None listed |
Montagne burns a little more than Westmount, 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 Westmount faces
Practical steps for Westmount’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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Westmount is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Westmount’s included.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Westmount.
- 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 Westmount.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Westmount
Does Westmount flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Westmount (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Westmount?
6.8% of the 74 homes Health Canada tested around Westmount topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Westmount?
About $0.12 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Westmount.
Is Westmount at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Westmount’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Westmount’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Westmount C+, 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).