Hazards in Copperfield: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 8.1% of tested homes
Around Copperfield, 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 Copperfield, near the typical $0.030. Copperfield grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Copperfield’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Copperfield: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Copperfield faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Copperfield grades B+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Copperfield’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: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Copperfield: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Copperfield’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Copperfield at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Copperfield’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 14 km away.
Only 0.5% of the land within 25 km of Copperfield 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 478
To three decimals the burn rate around Copperfield is zero, as for 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta, while Wainwright reaches 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Copperfield, 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Copperfield
Flood studies whose area touches Copperfield, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Copperfield, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Copperfield; 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 Copperfield 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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Copperfield $0.023 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Copperfield’s $0.023 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.8 times as much).
Nobody publishes earthquake risk for Copperfield alone, so this card uses the figure for the city of Calgary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Alberta: Copperfield’s $0.023 against a median of $0.013, with Black Diamond 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.
Copperfield’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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Copperfield’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
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 Copperfield: 8.1% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Copperfield’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.1% over the guideline, against 6.6%. Copperfield doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Calgary Health Region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Copperfield 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.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Copperfield, 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Copperfield only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Copperfield
Alerts for Copperfield 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 Copperfield 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)
Hazards in the places around Copperfield
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copperfield | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| New Brighton 13,048 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| McKenzie Towne 17,757 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Mahogany 17,818 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Auburn Bay 18,296 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| McKenzie Lake 11,966 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Cranston 20,055 · 5.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
New Brighton (low) has the heaviest fire record of Copperfield’s neighbours, and Copperfield (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Copperfield faces
Practical steps for Copperfield’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
- 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 Copperfield floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Copperfield’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Copperfield sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Copperfield’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Copperfield
Is Copperfield at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Copperfield’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2013), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Copperfield?
Expected earthquake damage in Copperfield comes to $0.023 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Copperfield’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Copperfield B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Copperfield flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Copperfield (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Copperfield?
8.1% of the 86 homes Health Canada tested around Copperfield topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).