Photo: Thank you for visiting my page from Canada · CC BY 2.0A flood study covers Eau Claire: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Government of Alberta
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Eau Claire, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquake risk in Eau Claire is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.023 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. About as many homes carry radon around Eau Claire as elsewhere, 8.1% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Eau Claire grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Eau Claire’s hazards
For Eau Claire, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Eau Claire faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Eau Claire: B+
The grade weighs Eau Claire’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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 Eau Claire: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Eau Claire’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Eau Claire is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Eau Claire’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 11 km away.
Little near Eau Claire’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 0.9% 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
Wainwright has the highest burn rate in Alberta, 1.43% a year; around Eau Claire, as around 386 of the 478 towns, it rounds to 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 Eau Claire, 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.
A flood study covers Eau Claire, from Government of Alberta: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Eau Claire, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2025 study by Government of Alberta covers Eau Claire, 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
Only 46% of towns in Alberta have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Eau Claire is one of them.
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 Eau Claire.
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 Eau Claire $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.
0.8 times the typical $0.030: Eau Claire’s $0.023 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Alberta peaks in Black Diamond ($0.048); Eau Claire, 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 Eau Claire.
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).
For Eau Claire the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of Calgary
Some radon around Eau Claire: 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. · Measured across the Calgary Health Region: radon tests
At 8.1% over the guideline, the area around Eau Claire is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Eau Claire, 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.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Eau Claire’s 5–10% band, which holds 37%.
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 Eau Claire 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).
Where to get warnings in Eau Claire
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Eau Claire; 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 Eau Claire come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Eau Claire’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eau Claire | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Downtown Commercial Core 9,286 · 0.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Sunnyside 2,976 · 0.7 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Crescent Heights 6,411 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Rosedale 2,507 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Downtown West End 2,796 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Beltline 26,171 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Nowhere around Eau Claire burns more: Downtown Commercial Core, 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 Eau Claire faces
What to do about the hazards Eau Claire 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Eau Claire’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Eau Claire takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Eau Claire, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Eau Claire.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Eau Claire
How big is the earthquake risk in Eau Claire?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Eau Claire.
Does Eau Claire flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Eau Claire; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Eau Claire?
Around Eau Claire, 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 Eau Claire’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Eau Claire B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Eau Claire at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Eau Claire since 1986 (last in 2014); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
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).