A flood study covers Harvest Hills: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Government of Alberta
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Harvest Hills: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Harvest Hills as in most places, at $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Harvest Hills’ survey area, 8.1% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Harvest Hills a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Harvest Hills’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Harvest Hills: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Harvest Hills faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Harvest Hills grades B+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Harvest Hills’ 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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Harvest Hills has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Harvest Hills’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Harvest Hills is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Harvest Hills’ homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 13 km away.
Around Harvest Hills the forest is thin or far off: 0% of the land within 5 km and 0.5% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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 Harvest Hills 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.
Harvest Hills shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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.
Harvest Hills is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Government of Alberta
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Harvest Hills: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Government of Alberta studied flooding in an area that includes Harvest Hills (2012); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nose and West Nose Creek Flood Hazard Study | Government of Alberta | 2012 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, Harvest Hills among them, below the 58% across Canada.
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 Harvest Hills 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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Harvest Hills $0.023 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Harvest Hills’ ground: $0.023 against a 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); Harvest Hills, 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.
Harvest Hills sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 54% expect more shaking damage.
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).
The model counts damage to Harvest Hills’ buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 Harvest Hills are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Harvest Hills’ area, at 8.1%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Calgary Health Region, Harvest Hills included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Alberta has 7.5% over 200 Bq/m³; Harvest Hills’ 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.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Harvest Hills, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are higher.
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.
The survey sampled homes around Harvest Hills; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Harvest Hills
Alerts for Harvest Hills 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 Harvest Hills 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)
How Harvest Hills’ neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvest Hills | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Country Hills 3,702 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Country Hills Village 2,731 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Coventry Hills 17,391 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Panorama Hills 25,494 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Beddington Heights 11,333 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Sandstone Valley 5,816 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Country Hills (low) has the heaviest fire record of Harvest Hills’ neighbours, and Harvest Hills (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Harvest Hills faces
Practical steps for Harvest Hills’ 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. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Harvest Hills sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Harvest Hills’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Harvest Hills floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Harvest Hills’.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Harvest Hills
Is radon a problem in Harvest Hills?
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 Harvest Hills.
Does Harvest Hills flood?
Harvest Hills’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How is Harvest Hills’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Harvest Hills’ Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Harvest Hills?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Harvest Hills $0.023 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Harvest Hills at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Harvest Hills’ low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2017) is short of the level that counts.
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).