Barnwell’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 8.9% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire is rare near Barnwell: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.003% a year. For earthquakes Barnwell is middling, $0.025 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Barnwell a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Barnwell’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Barnwell: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Barnwell faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Barnwell: B
Earthquake risk and radon make Barnwell’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Barnwell: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Barnwell’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Forty years of fire maps put Barnwell at 0.003% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 20 km from Barnwell’s homes since 1986.
Little near Barnwell’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 0% 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 Alberta · highest of 479
In the top quarter in Alberta: Barnwell ranks 71st of 479 at 0.003% a year, with Wainwright first at 1.43%.
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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Barnwell stays low, with 92%.
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 Barnwell
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Barnwell: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Barnwell, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 46% of towns in Alberta have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Barnwell is not among them.
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 Barnwell 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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Barnwell $0.025 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Barnwell’s ground: $0.025 against a typical $0.030, 0.8 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Alberta: Barnwell’s $0.025 against a median of $0.013, with Black Diamond highest at $0.048.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Barnwell (53%).
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 model counts damage to Barnwell’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 Barnwell: 8.9% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 8.9% over the guideline, the area around Barnwell is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ordinary for towns in Alberta at 8.9% over 200 Bq/m³ (7.5% is the median), the area around Barnwell had 0.9% over 600.
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: Barnwell, 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Barnwell can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests published for the Chinook Regional Health Authority, not by town
Weather and fire alerts for Barnwell
Alerts for Barnwell 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 Barnwell 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 Barnwell’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Barnwell (low), with Taber next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Barnwell faces
Practical steps for Barnwell’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
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Barnwell’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Barnwell.
- 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 Barnwell’s.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Barnwell takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Barnwell
How is Barnwell’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Barnwell B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Barnwell?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Barnwell’s buildings lose $0.025 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Barnwell flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Barnwell (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Barnwell at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Barnwell’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2014), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Barnwell?
8.9% of the 112 homes Health Canada tested around Barnwell topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).