Saguenay sits in the St. Lawrence River valley in Quebec, where a humid continental climate produces cold, snowy winters and a spring melt season that is one of the region’s biggest annual flood risks.
On the Saguenay River, the city sits near the site of Quebec’s catastrophic 1996 Saguenay flood, one of Canada’s costliest natural disasters. Ice jams during the spring thaw can cause the St. Lawrence and its tributaries to rise suddenly, and summer convective storms add a second flood risk later in the year, both of which Environment Canada tracks using its national radar network. Learn more: Flash Flood Warning Signs on Radar · Open the full Rain Map