Flood mapping exists for Cranston: 2 on record, latest by Government of Alberta
Wildfire isn’t Cranston’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.000% a year). For earthquakes Cranston is middling, $0.023 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, 8.1% of homes tested in Cranston’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Cranston grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Cranston’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Cranston: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Cranston faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Cranston: B+
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Cranston with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Cranston: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Cranston’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Cranston each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Cranston’s homes came within 12 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest makes up 0.3% of the land within 5 km of Cranston and 0.6% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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); Cranston 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Cranston, 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.
Flooding around Cranston is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Government of Alberta
Flood studies whose area touches Cranston, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
2 studies on the inventory touch Cranston, the newest Government of Alberta’s from 2025, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pine Creek Flood Hazard Study | Government of Alberta | 2025 | final |
| Bow and Elbow River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Cranston apart in Alberta, where 46% of towns have one (Canada: 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 Cranston 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Ordinary seismic risk in Cranston: $0.023 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.
0.8 times the typical $0.030: Cranston’s $0.023 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Alberta: Cranston’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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Cranston (54%).
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 Cranston’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). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Calgary
8.1% of homes tested around Cranston are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
8.1% of tested homes around Cranston were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%. Cranston 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
The typical town in Alberta has 7.5% over 200 Bq/m³; Cranston’s area has 8.1%, much the same.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Cranston with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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 Cranston only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Cranston
Alerts for Cranston 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 Cranston 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 Cranston
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cranston | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Auburn Bay 18,296 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Mahogany 17,818 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Chaparral 12,522 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Legacy 7,975 · 3.6 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| McKenzie Towne 17,757 · 3.7 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| McKenzie Lake 11,966 · 3.9 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Auburn Bay (low) has the heaviest fire record of Cranston’s neighbours, and Cranston (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Cranston faces
What to do about the hazards Cranston 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Cranston is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Cranston’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Cranston’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Cranston.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Cranston
Does Cranston flood?
There is flood mapping for Cranston on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Cranston?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Cranston.
How is Cranston’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Cranston’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Cranston?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.1% of 86 homes tested in Cranston’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Cranston at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Cranston has burned since 1986, the last in 2013, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
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).