Photo: Jason Woodhead · CC BY 2.0Bow Island faces fewer hazards than 87% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is rare near Bow Island: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.002% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.015 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). About as many homes carry radon around Bow Island as elsewhere, 4.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Bow Island a grade of A; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Bow Island’s hazards
For Bow Island, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Bow Island faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Bow Island grades A for hazard risk
The grade weighs Bow Island’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Bow Island: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Bow Island’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Bow Island is 0.002%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Fire has stayed at least 11 km from Bow Island’s homes since 1986.
Only 0% of the land within 25 km of Bow Island is forest fuel, and 0% close in.
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
Wainwright burns fastest in Alberta at 1.43% a year; Bow Island, at 0.002%, ranks 77th of 479.
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.
Bow Island 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 Bow Island
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Bow Island: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
An empty entry for Bow Island on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 46% of towns in Alberta have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Bow Island is not among them.
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 Bow Island’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 Bow Island: $0.015 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Bow Island’s $0.015 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.5 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Alberta: Bow Island’s $0.015 sits by the median of $0.013, while Black Diamond reaches $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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 72% of its 2,611 towns sit above Bow Island.
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 Bow Island.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
4.4% of homes tested around Bow Island are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Bow Island’s area, at 4.4%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Palliser Health Region, Bow Island included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Bow Island, 4.4% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³, under the median in Alberta (7.5%); 2.2% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Bow Island, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
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 Bow Island, 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 Bow Island
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Bow Island; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Bow Island, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Bow Island faces
What to do about the hazards Bow Island 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
- 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 Bow Island sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Bow Island’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Bow Island floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Bow Island, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Bow Island
Is Bow Island at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Bow Island has burned since 1986, the last in 2017, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Bow Island’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Bow Island’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Bow Island?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Bow Island $0.015 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Bow Island flood?
Nothing is listed for Bow Island on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Bow Island?
In Health Canada’s survey, 4.4% of 91 homes tested in Bow Island’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).