Photo: Benefactor123 · CC BY 3.0Monterey Park’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 8.1% of area homes over the radon guideline
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Monterey Park, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. For earthquakes Monterey Park is middling, $0.023 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Monterey Park a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Monterey Park’s hazards
For Monterey Park, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Monterey Park faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Monterey Park grades B+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Monterey Park’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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Monterey Park: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Monterey Park’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Monterey Park burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Monterey Park’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 20 km away.
Little near Monterey Park’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 0.4% 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); Monterey Park 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Monterey Park is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 7.5% rank higher.
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.
No flood study is listed for Monterey Park
Flood studies whose area touches Monterey Park, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Monterey Park on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Monterey Park; in Alberta, 46% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
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 Monterey 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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Monterey Park: $0.023 per $1,000 of buildings 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: Monterey Park’s $0.023 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.023, Monterey Park is above the typical town in Alberta ($0.013); Black Diamond has the most 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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Monterey Park (54%).
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 Monterey Park.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Calgary
Some radon around Monterey Park: 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.
The survey area of Monterey Park reads 8.1%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Calgary Health Region as a whole, not for Monterey Park alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Monterey 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.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Monterey Park, 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Monterey Park’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Monterey Park
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Monterey 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. |
For fires near Monterey Park, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Monterey Park
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monterey Park | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Temple 10,545 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Pineridge 10,062 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Coral Springs 5,542 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Falconridge 10,218 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Marlborough Park 8,378 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Whitehorn 11,273 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
Monterey Park’s low band tops its neighbours; Temple is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Monterey Park faces
Practical steps for Monterey 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Monterey Park is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Monterey 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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Monterey Park.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Monterey Park’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Monterey Park
Is radon a problem in Monterey Park?
8.1% of the 86 homes Health Canada tested around Monterey Park topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Monterey Park flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Monterey Park (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Monterey Park at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Monterey Park’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2014), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Monterey Park?
Expected earthquake damage in Monterey Park comes to $0.023 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Monterey Park’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Monterey Park grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers 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).