Elbow Park is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Government of Alberta
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Elbow Park, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. For earthquakes Elbow Park is middling, $0.023 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon around Elbow Park is ordinary for Canada: 8.1% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Elbow Park a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Elbow Park’s hazards
For Elbow Park, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Elbow Park faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Elbow Park: B+
Earthquake risk and radon make Elbow Park’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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Elbow Park: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Elbow Park’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Elbow Park burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Elbow Park’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 11 km away.
Little near Elbow Park’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0% 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
To three decimals the burn rate around Elbow Park 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Elbow Park, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
Government of Alberta has mapped flooding for Elbow Park (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Elbow Park: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Elbow Park is Government of Alberta’s, dated 2025; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bow and Elbow River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, but Elbow Park has one.
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 Elbow Park’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Elbow Park $0.023 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Earthquake losses in Elbow Park, $0.023 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (0.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Alberta peaks in Black Diamond ($0.048); Elbow Park, 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.
Middle of the pack: 54% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Elbow Park.
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 Elbow Park.
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
8.1% of homes tested around Elbow Park are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Near the middle for radon: Elbow Park’s area 8.1%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Calgary Health Region as a whole, not for Elbow Park alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Elbow Park 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 Elbow Park, 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.
Whatever Elbow Park’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Elbow Park
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Elbow Park; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Elbow Park, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Elbow Park’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elbow Park | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Upper Mount Royal 2,758 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Erlton 3,221 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Mission 6,329 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Altadore 7,675 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Lower Mount Royal 3,136 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| South Calgary 4,412 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Elbow Park (low); Upper Mount Royal comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Elbow Park faces
Practical steps for Elbow Park’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?
- 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. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Elbow Park until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Elbow Park’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Elbow Park, 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. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Elbow Park without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Elbow Park
Does Elbow Park flood?
A flood study covers Elbow Park on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Elbow Park?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Elbow Park $0.023 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Elbow Park at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Elbow Park’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2014) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Elbow Park?
The area’s survey found 8.1% of 86 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Elbow Park.
How is Elbow Park’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Elbow Park B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).