Photo: Qyd · CC BY 2.5Flood mapping exists for Panorama Hills: 1 on record, latest by Government of Alberta
Around Panorama Hills, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Panorama Hills as in most places, at $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, 8.1% of homes tested in Panorama Hills’ area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Panorama Hills a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Panorama Hills’s hazards
For Panorama Hills, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Panorama Hills faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Panorama Hills grades B+ for hazard risk
For Panorama Hills, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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 Panorama Hills: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Panorama Hills’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Panorama Hills burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Nothing inside 5 km of Panorama Hills’ homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 11 km off.
Forest fuel is scarce around Panorama Hills: 0% of the land within 5 km, 0.5% 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
Wainwright has the highest burn rate in Alberta, 1.43% a year; around Panorama Hills, as around 386 of the 478 towns, it rounds to 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.
Panorama 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.
A flood study covers Panorama Hills, from Government of Alberta: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Panorama Hills, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Panorama Hills the inventory points to Government of Alberta’s 2012 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nose and West Nose Creek Flood Hazard Study | Government of Alberta | 2012 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 46% of towns in Alberta have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Panorama Hills is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Panorama Hills to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Panorama Hills: $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.
Earthquake losses in Panorama Hills, $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
Above the middle in Alberta: Panorama Hills’ $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 Panorama Hills.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Panorama Hills is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Data for earthquake risk covers the city of Calgary
Radon about average around Panorama Hills: 8.1% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Panorama Hills’ 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
Around Panorama Hills, 8.1% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Alberta (7.5%).
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 Panorama Hills’ 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.
A low area share in Panorama Hills doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests published for the Calgary Health Region, not by town
Where to get warnings in Panorama Hills
Alerts for Panorama 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Panorama Hills are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Panorama Hills
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panorama Hills | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Country Hills 3,702 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Country Hills Village 2,731 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Carrington 2,920 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Harvest Hills 7,930 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Evanston 21,483 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Coventry Hills 17,391 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Country Hills (low) has the heaviest fire record of Panorama Hills’ neighbours, and Panorama Hills (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Panorama Hills faces
Practical steps for Panorama 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Panorama Hills’ included.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Panorama Hills.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Panorama Hills takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Panorama Hills.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Panorama Hills
How is Panorama Hills’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Panorama Hills B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Panorama Hills?
8.1% of the 86 homes Health Canada tested around Panorama Hills topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Panorama Hills?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Panorama Hills.
Is Panorama Hills at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Panorama Hills’ band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2017), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Panorama Hills flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Panorama Hills; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in 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).