A flood study covers Hidden Valley: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Government of Alberta
For Hidden Valley, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Hidden Valley as in most places, at $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). About as many homes carry radon around Hidden Valley as elsewhere, 8.1% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Hidden Valley a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Hidden Valley’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Hidden Valley: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Hidden Valley faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hidden Valley grades B+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Hidden Valley’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of 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.
Wildfire is rare near Hidden Valley: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Hidden Valley’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Hidden Valley burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 8.7 km from Hidden Valley’s homes since 1986.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Hidden Valley: forest fuel is 0% within 5 km and 0.7% 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
Among the 478 towns in Alberta, Wainwright burns fastest (1.43% a year); Hidden Valley is with the 386 near 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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Hidden Valley 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.
Government of Alberta has mapped flooding for Hidden Valley (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Hidden Valley, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Hidden Valley is Government of Alberta’s, dated 2012; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nose and West Nose Creek Flood Hazard Study | Government of Alberta | 2012 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, but Hidden Valley has one.
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 Hidden Valley.
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 Hidden Valley $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: Hidden Valley’s $0.023 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Alberta: Hidden Valley’s $0.023 against a median of $0.013, with Black Diamond highest at $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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 54% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Hidden Valley.
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 Hidden Valley’s 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: the city of Calgary
8.1% of homes tested around Hidden Valley are over the radon 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
Hidden Valley’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.1% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Alberta has 7.5% over 200 Bq/m³; Hidden Valley’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.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Hidden Valley’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Hidden Valley only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Hidden Valley
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Hidden Valley; 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 Hidden Valley, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Hidden Valley’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hidden Valley | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Macewan Glen 4,718 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Sandstone Valley 5,816 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Hamptons 7,342 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Kincora 7,290 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Evanston 21,483 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Panorama Hills 25,494 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Hidden Valley (low), with Macewan Glen next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Hidden Valley faces
Practical steps for Hidden Valley’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
- 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 Hidden Valley’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Hidden Valley’s 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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Hidden Valley.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Hidden Valley is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Hidden Valley
Is radon a problem in Hidden Valley?
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 Hidden Valley.
Is Hidden Valley at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Hidden Valley’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2017) is short of the level that counts.
Does Hidden Valley flood?
There is flood mapping for Hidden Valley on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Hidden Valley?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Hidden Valley.
How is Hidden Valley’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hidden Valley’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).