Hazards in Dalhousie: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 8.1% of tested homes
Burn scars are few around Dalhousie, with 0% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.000% a year). For earthquakes Dalhousie is middling, $0.023 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Dalhousie a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Dalhousie’s hazards
For Dalhousie, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Dalhousie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Dalhousie grades B+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Dalhousie, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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.
Few fires near Dalhousie: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Dalhousie’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.000% of the land a year, Dalhousie’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Little near Dalhousie’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0.1% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 1.2% 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
Little or nothing burns around Dalhousie in a typical year; 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta share that, and Wainwright leads 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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Dalhousie sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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 Dalhousie
Flood studies whose area touches Dalhousie, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Dalhousie, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, and Dalhousie has none.
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 Dalhousie’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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Dalhousie: $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.
At $0.023 per $1,000, Dalhousie’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, Dalhousie included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Alberta peaks in Black Diamond ($0.048); Dalhousie, 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 54% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Dalhousie.
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 Dalhousie.
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 Dalhousie: 8.1% of area homes over the 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
The survey area of Dalhousie reads 8.1%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Dalhousie, 8.1% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Alberta (7.5%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Dalhousie is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Dalhousie’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Dalhousie
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Dalhousie; 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 Dalhousie 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 Dalhousie
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dalhousie | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Varsity 12,605 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Brentwood 7,369 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Ranchlands 7,376 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Hawkwood 9,188 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Silver Springs 9,042 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Edgemont 15,359 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
Nowhere around Dalhousie burns more: Varsity, 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 Dalhousie faces
What to do about the hazards Dalhousie 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Dalhousie’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Dalhousie is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Dalhousie.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Dalhousie, 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 Dalhousie
Is radon a problem in Dalhousie?
Around Dalhousie, 86 survey homes were tested and 8.1% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Dalhousie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Dalhousie’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Dalhousie at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Dalhousie since 1986 (last in 2014); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Dalhousie flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Dalhousie’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How big is the earthquake risk in Dalhousie?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Dalhousie.
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).