Wildfire low, radon 8.1%: how Braeside stands on hazards
Little of the land around Braeside has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.000% a year. For earthquakes Braeside is middling, $0.023 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Braeside a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Braeside’s hazards
For Braeside, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Braeside faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Braeside: B+
Earthquake risk and radon make Braeside’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #282 of 474 in Alberta and #1,102 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Braeside: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.2% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Braeside’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Braeside burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Braeside: forest fuel is 2.4% within 5 km and 2.5% 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 478
Among the 478 towns in Alberta, Wainwright burns fastest (1.43% a year); Braeside is with the 386 near zero.
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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Braeside is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 7.5% 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.
No flood study is listed for Braeside
Flood studies whose area touches Braeside, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Braeside has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Braeside.
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 Braeside 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.”
Expected shaking damage in Braeside: $0.023 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
0.8 times the typical $0.030: Braeside’s $0.023 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Alberta peaks in Black Diamond ($0.048); Braeside, at $0.023, sits above the median of $0.013.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Braeside’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 54% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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 Braeside.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Calgary
8.1% of homes tested around Braeside are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Calgary Health Region
Braeside’s area, at 8.1%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Braeside’s area, at 8.1%, is close to the median in Alberta (7.5%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Braeside, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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 Braeside, 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 Braeside
Alerts for Braeside 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 Braeside 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 Braeside’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braeside | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Cedarbrae 5,943 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Woodlands 5,391 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Palliser 4,987 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Southwood 6,092 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Woodbine 8,075 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Oakridge 5,623 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Nowhere around Braeside burns more: Cedarbrae, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Braeside faces
Practical steps for Braeside’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
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Braeside takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Braeside.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Braeside’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Braeside, 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 Braeside
Does Braeside flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Braeside, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Braeside at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Braeside’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2014) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Braeside?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Braeside.
How is Braeside’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Braeside B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Braeside?
The area’s survey found 8.1% of 86 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Braeside.
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).