Penbrooke Meadows’ hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 8.1% of area homes over the radon guideline
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Penbrooke Meadows: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.023 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Penbrooke Meadows, near the typical $0.030. Penbrooke Meadows grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Penbrooke Meadows’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Penbrooke Meadows: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Penbrooke Meadows faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Penbrooke Meadows grades B+ for hazard risk
For Penbrooke Meadows, 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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Penbrooke Meadows: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Penbrooke Meadows’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.000% of the land a year around Penbrooke Meadows, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The 5 km ring around Penbrooke Meadows’ homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 19 km out.
Forest makes up 0% of the land within 5 km of Penbrooke Meadows and 0.5% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Penbrooke Meadows, as for 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta; Wainwright tops the list at 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.
Penbrooke Meadows 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 Penbrooke Meadows
Flood studies whose area touches Penbrooke Meadows, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Penbrooke Meadows, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Penbrooke Meadows.
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 Penbrooke Meadows 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.”
Expected shaking damage in Penbrooke Meadows: $0.023 a year per $1,000
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: Penbrooke Meadows’ $0.023 is ordinary.
Penbrooke Meadows shares its earthquake risk numbers with the rest of the city of Calgary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.023, Penbrooke Meadows 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.
Middle of the pack: 54% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Penbrooke Meadows.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Penbrooke Meadows’ figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
8.1% of homes tested around Penbrooke Meadows 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
The survey area of Penbrooke Meadows reads 8.1%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Alberta has 7.5% over 200 Bq/m³; Penbrooke Meadows’ 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 Penbrooke Meadows’ 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Penbrooke Meadows as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Penbrooke Meadows
Alerts for Penbrooke Meadows 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 Penbrooke Meadows 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)
Hazards in the places around Penbrooke Meadows
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penbrooke Meadows | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Applewood Park 6,835 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Forest Heights 6,120 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Marlborough Park 8,378 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Forest Lawn 7,513 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Abbeydale 6,561 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Marlborough 8,932 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
Nowhere around Penbrooke Meadows burns more: Applewood Park, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Penbrooke Meadows faces
Practical steps for Penbrooke Meadows’ 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
- 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 Penbrooke Meadows’.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Penbrooke Meadows’ 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 Penbrooke Meadows.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Penbrooke Meadows is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Penbrooke Meadows
How big is the earthquake risk in Penbrooke Meadows?
Expected earthquake damage in Penbrooke Meadows comes to $0.023 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Penbrooke Meadows at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Penbrooke Meadows’ band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2014), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Penbrooke Meadows?
8.1% of the 86 homes Health Canada tested around Penbrooke Meadows topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Penbrooke Meadows flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Penbrooke Meadows (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How is Penbrooke Meadows’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Penbrooke Meadows B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).