Wildfire low, radon 8.1%: how New Brighton stands on hazards
Wildfire barely registers for New Brighton, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). For earthquakes New Brighton is middling, $0.023 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives New Brighton a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about New Brighton’s hazards
For New Brighton, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What New Brighton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in New Brighton: B+
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like New Brighton with little fire nearby would get no credit for 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.
Little of the land around New Brighton has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around New Brighton’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around New Brighton burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 14 km from New Brighton’s homes, none within 5 km.
Only 0.5% of the land within 25 km of New Brighton is forest fuel, and 0% close in.
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 New Brighton 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.
New Brighton 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.
No flood study is listed for New Brighton
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for New Brighton: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
There is no study for New Brighton on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not New Brighton.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for New Brighton.
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.”
Expected shaking damage in New Brighton: $0.023 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about New Brighton’s ground: $0.023 against a typical $0.030, 0.8 times.
New Brighton doesn’t get its own earthquake risk figures; the ones here come from the city of Calgary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Alberta expects $0.013 a year; New Brighton expects $0.023, and Black Diamond $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.
Middle of the pack: 54% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than New Brighton.
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 New Brighton.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around New Brighton: 8.1% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
New Brighton’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.1% over the guideline, against 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Calgary Health Region, New Brighton included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Alberta has 7.5% over 200 Bq/m³; New Brighton’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.
New Brighton is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have more.
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, New Brighton’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in New Brighton
Alerts for New Brighton 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for New Brighton to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around New Brighton
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Brighton | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| McKenzie Towne 17,757 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Copperfield 13,952 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| McKenzie Lake 11,966 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Auburn Bay 18,296 · 3.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Mahogany 17,818 · 3.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Deer Run 3,652 · 4.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
McKenzie Towne (low) has the heaviest fire record of New Brighton’s neighbours, and New Brighton (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what New Brighton faces
What to do about the hazards New Brighton 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?
- 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 New Brighton is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 New Brighton.
- Wildfire counts one way. For New Brighton, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for New Brighton’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in New Brighton
How is New Brighton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
New Brighton’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in New Brighton?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.1% of 86 homes tested in New Brighton’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in New Brighton?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in New Brighton $0.023 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is New Brighton at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of New Brighton has burned since 1986, the last in 2013, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does New Brighton flood?
Nothing is listed for New Brighton on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
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).