Photo: dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0A flood study covers Capitol Hill: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Government of Alberta
Around Capitol Hill, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.023 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Capitol Hill, near the typical $0.030. Radon is about average around Capitol Hill: 8.1% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Capitol Hill grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Capitol Hill’s hazards
For Capitol Hill, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Capitol Hill faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Capitol Hill grades B+ for hazard risk
For Capitol Hill, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #282 of 474 in Alberta and #1,102 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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 Capitol Hill: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Capitol Hill’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
With 0.000% burned a year, Capitol Hill is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Fire has stayed at least 8.8 km from Capitol Hill’s homes since 1986.
Around Capitol Hill the forest is thin or far off: 0% of the land within 5 km and 0.9% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Capitol Hill, as for 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta; Wainwright tops the list 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Capitol Hill, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
Government of Alberta has mapped flooding for Capitol Hill (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Capitol Hill: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2025 study by Government of Alberta covers Capitol Hill, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bow and Elbow River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, but Capitol Hill has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Capitol Hill.
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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Expected shaking damage in Capitol Hill: $0.023 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.023 per $1,000, Capitol Hill’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.8 times).
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Calgary, Capitol Hill included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Alberta expects $0.013 a year; Capitol Hill expects $0.023, and Black Diamond $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.
Middle of the pack: 54% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Capitol Hill.
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 Capitol Hill.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Capitol Hill: 8.1% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Near the middle for radon: Capitol Hill’s area 8.1%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Capitol Hill is ordinary for towns in Alberta: 8.1%, beside a median of 7.5%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Capitol Hill’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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.
Neighbouring homes in Capitol Hill can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Calgary Health Region
Where to get warnings in Capitol Hill
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Capitol Hill; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Capitol Hill come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Capitol Hill
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capitol Hill | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Banff Trail 4,175 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Rosedale 2,507 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Mount Pleasant 9,224 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Hillhurst 8,435 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Charleswood 5,642 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Sunnyside 2,976 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Banff Trail (low) has the heaviest fire record of Capitol Hill’s neighbours, and Capitol Hill (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Capitol Hill faces
Practical steps for Capitol Hill’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Capitol Hill floods.
- 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 Capitol Hill sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Capitol Hill’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Capitol Hill, 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 Capitol Hill
Does Capitol Hill flood?
Capitol Hill’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Capitol Hill?
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 Capitol Hill.
How big is the earthquake risk in Capitol Hill?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Capitol Hill $0.023 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Capitol Hill’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Capitol Hill’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Capitol Hill at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Capitol Hill’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2014) is short of the level that counts.
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).