Photo: Iamjforlife · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Downtown West End: 1 on record, latest by Government of Alberta
Around Downtown West End, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Downtown West End as in most places, at $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, 8.1% of homes tested in Downtown West End’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Downtown West End a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Downtown West End’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Downtown West End: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Downtown West End faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Downtown West End grades B+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Downtown West End 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.
Few fires near Downtown West End: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Downtown West End’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.000% burned a year, Downtown West End is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Fire has stayed at least 11 km from Downtown West End’s homes since 1986.
With 0% forest fuel within 5 km and 1% within 25 km, the land around Downtown West End gives a fire little to burn.
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
Of the 478 towns in Alberta, 386 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Downtown West End among them; Wainwright leads at 1.43% a year.
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 Downtown West End 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.
Downtown West End is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Government of Alberta
Flood studies whose area touches Downtown West End, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Downtown West End the inventory points to Government of Alberta’s 2025 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bow and Elbow River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Downtown West End 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.
Flood mapping is shown for Downtown West End to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Downtown West End $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.
At $0.023 per $1,000, Downtown West End’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.8 times).
Downtown West End doesn’t get its own earthquake risk figures; the ones here come from the city of Calgary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Downtown West End’s $0.023 tops the median in Alberta, $0.013, though Black Diamond reaches $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.
Downtown West End’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 Downtown West End’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).
8.1% of homes tested around Downtown West End are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Around Downtown West End, 8.1% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Downtown West End shares its radon tests numbers with the rest of 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; Downtown West End’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 Downtown West End 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 Downtown West End only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Downtown West End
Alerts for Downtown West End 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Downtown West End are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Downtown West End’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown West End | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Downtown Commercial Core 9,286 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Beltline 26,171 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Hillhurst 8,435 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Lower Mount Royal 3,136 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Sunnyside 2,976 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Sunalta 4,151 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Downtown Commercial Core (low) has the heaviest fire record of Downtown West End’s neighbours, and Downtown West End (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Downtown West End faces
What to do about the hazards Downtown West End 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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Downtown West End takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Downtown West End’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Downtown West End’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Downtown West End.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Downtown West End
Does Downtown West End flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Downtown West End; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How is Downtown West End’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Downtown West End’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Downtown West End at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Downtown West End has burned since 1986, the last in 2014, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Is radon a problem in Downtown West End?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.1% of 86 homes tested in Downtown West End’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Downtown West End?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Downtown West End.
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).