Photo: Ribbet32 · CC BY-SA 4.0Beaverlodge’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 8.9% of area homes over the radon guideline
Around Beaverlodge, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.010 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Beaverlodge a grade of A−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Beaverlodge’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Beaverlodge: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Beaverlodge faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Beaverlodge grades A− for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Beaverlodge, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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 Beaverlodge: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Beaverlodge’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Beaverlodge fire takes 0.000% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
With 0.3% forest fuel within 5 km and 3.8% within 25 km, the land around Beaverlodge gives a fire little to burn.
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
Of the 479 towns in Alberta, 387 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Beaverlodge among them; Wainwright leads at 1.43% a year.
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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Beaverlodge, burning rounds to zero.
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 Beaverlodge
Flood studies whose area touches Beaverlodge, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Beaverlodge has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, and Beaverlodge has none.
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 Beaverlodge 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.”
Low seismic risk in Beaverlodge: $0.010 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.
0.3 times the typical $0.030: Beaverlodge’s $0.010 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.010, Beaverlodge is below the typical town in Alberta ($0.013); Black Diamond is 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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (86%) face more earthquake damage than Beaverlodge.
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 Beaverlodge’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 Beaverlodge: 8.9% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of Beaverlodge reads 8.9%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Beaverlodge alone, so this card uses the figure for the Peace Country Health.
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 Beaverlodge had 1% over 600.
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 Beaverlodge’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 survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Beaverlodge 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).
Weather and fire alerts for Beaverlodge
Alerts for Beaverlodge 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Beaverlodge are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Beaverlodge’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beaverlodge | Low | $0.010 | 8.9% | None listed |
| Wembley 1,516 · 19 km | Low | $0.019 | 8.9% | None listed |
Wembley burns a little more than Beaverlodge, 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 Beaverlodge faces
What to do about the hazards Beaverlodge 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?
- 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 Beaverlodge’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. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Beaverlodge is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Beaverlodge.
- 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 Beaverlodge’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Beaverlodge
Is Beaverlodge at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Beaverlodge since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
Is radon a problem in Beaverlodge?
Around Beaverlodge, 203 survey homes were tested and 8.9% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Beaverlodge’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Beaverlodge A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Beaverlodge flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Beaverlodge’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How big is the earthquake risk in Beaverlodge?
Expected earthquake damage in Beaverlodge comes to $0.010 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).