Bon Accord faces fewer hazards than 98% of Canadian towns
The burn rate around Bon Accord is 0.05% a year (1.9% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Seismic risk runs low: $0.011 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, just 1.4% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Bon Accord grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Bon Accord’s hazards
For Bon Accord, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Bon Accord faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Bon Accord: A+
For Bon Accord, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Only 73 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
A moderate wildfire record for Bon Accord: 1.9% within 25 km burned, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Bon Accord’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Bon Accord is 0.05%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Bon Accord’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 15 km away.
Forest fuel is scarce around Bon Accord: 0.7% of the land within 5 km, 1.6% 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: Bon Accord ranks 38th of 479 at 0.05% 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.
Bon Accord is in the moderate band, which holds 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 2.1% 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Bon Accord
Flood studies whose area touches Bon Accord, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Bon Accord on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Bon Accord; in Alberta, 46% 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.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Bon Accord floods.
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 Bon Accord: $0.011 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.
At $0.011 per $1,000, Bon Accord carries 0.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Alberta is $0.013; Bon Accord, at $0.011, is right beside it, and Black Diamond tops the list 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 (85%) face more earthquake damage than Bon Accord.
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 Bon Accord.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
1.4% of homes tested around Bon Accord are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Capital Health: radon tests
A lower share than most: 1.4% of tested homes around Bon Accord, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Alberta (7.5%), the area around Bon Accord has fewer high tests: 1.4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Bon Accord’s 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Bon Accord, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Bon Accord
Alerts for Bon Accord 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 Bon Accord 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)
Hazards in the places around Bon Accord
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bon Accord | Moderate | $0.011 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Gibbons 3,352 · 5.4 km | Moderate | $0.008 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Sturgeon County 21,144 · 13 km | Low | $0.010 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Morinville 10,763 · 16 km | Low | $0.014 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Legal 1,253 · 17 km | Low | $0.009 | 1.4% | None listed |
Gibbons burns a little more than Bon Accord, in the same moderate band (moderate here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Bon Accord faces
Practical steps for Bon Accord’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Bon Accord.
- 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 Bon Accord sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Bon Accord’s included.
- 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 Bon Accord floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bon Accord
How is Bon Accord’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Bon Accord A+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Bon Accord?
1.4% of the 73 homes Health Canada tested around Bon Accord topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Bon Accord?
Expected earthquake damage in Bon Accord comes to $0.011 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Bon Accord at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Bon Accord’s band is moderate, with 1.9% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Bon Accord flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Bon Accord (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).