Photo: Marie-Hélène Lareault · Public domainWildfire low, radon 13%: how Whapmagoostui stands on hazards
Wildfire is rare near Whapmagoostui: 1.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.03% a year. Seismic risk runs low: $0.002 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Whapmagoostui a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Whapmagoostui’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Whapmagoostui: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Whapmagoostui faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Whapmagoostui grades A− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Whapmagoostui’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 8 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.
Few fires near Whapmagoostui: 7% within 5 km, 1.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Whapmagoostui’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.03% a year keeps Whapmagoostui in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The nearer ring around Whapmagoostui is less wooded (54% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (68%).
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 0.03% a year, Whapmagoostui is near the top in Quebec: 12th of 514, behind Mistissini (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.
Whapmagoostui 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Whapmagoostui
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Whapmagoostui: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
An empty entry for Whapmagoostui on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Whapmagoostui has no flood study on file; only 45% of towns in Quebec do, against 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Whapmagoostui’s homes are at risk.
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.”
Low seismic risk in Whapmagoostui: $0.002 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Whapmagoostui it is only $0.002, 0.1 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.002, Whapmagoostui 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.
At the bottom of Canada’s range, Whapmagoostui has 100% of the 2,611 towns above it.
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 loss is to Whapmagoostui’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
13% of homes tested around Whapmagoostui are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
A higher share than most: 13% of tested homes around Whapmagoostui, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Whapmagoostui (13%) 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.
The 10–20% band holds 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, Whapmagoostui among them; 4.6% 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.
One home in Whapmagoostui can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Nunavik health region
Weather and fire alerts for Whapmagoostui
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Whapmagoostui; 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 Whapmagoostui, 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)
Get ready for what Whapmagoostui faces
Practical steps for Whapmagoostui’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Whapmagoostui floods.
- 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 Whapmagoostui’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Whapmagoostui’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Whapmagoostui sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Whapmagoostui
Is radon a problem in Whapmagoostui?
The area’s survey found 13% of 8 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Whapmagoostui.
Is Whapmagoostui at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Whapmagoostui’s low band (1.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2017) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Whapmagoostui?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Whapmagoostui $0.002 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Whapmagoostui’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Whapmagoostui A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Whapmagoostui flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Whapmagoostui, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
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).