Photo: jockrutherford from Owen Sound, ON · CC BY-SA 2.0A flood study covers Queensland: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Government of Alberta
For Queensland, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Queensland sits near the middle: $0.023 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon around Queensland is ordinary for Canada: 8.1% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Queensland grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Queensland’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Queensland: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Queensland faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Queensland: B+
Two inputs always count for Queensland, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #282 of 474 in Alberta and #1,102 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Queensland has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Queensland’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Queensland burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Queensland’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 8.4 km away.
With 0.4% forest fuel within 5 km and 0.8% within 25 km, the land around Queensland gives a fire little to burn.
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
Little or nothing burns around Queensland in a typical year; 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta share that, and Wainwright leads 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.
Queensland 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.
Queensland is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Government of Alberta
Flood studies whose area touches Queensland, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Government of Alberta studied flooding in an area that includes Queensland (2025); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bow and Elbow River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, but Queensland has one.
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 Queensland 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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Queensland $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.
Earthquake losses in Queensland, $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
Queensland’s $0.023 tops the median in Alberta, $0.013, though Black Diamond reaches $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 Queensland.
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 loss is to Queensland’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of Calgary
Some radon around Queensland: 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. · Measured across the Calgary Health Region: radon tests
The survey area of Queensland reads 8.1%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Queensland 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.
A middling share of high tests puts Queensland with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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.
One home in Queensland can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Queensland
Alerts for Queensland 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 Queensland 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 Queensland
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queensland | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Deer Ridge 4,454 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Lake Bonavista 11,154 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Douglasdale/Glen 13,333 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Parkland 3,652 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Deer Run 3,652 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Willow Park 6,891 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Queensland (low); Deer Ridge comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Queensland faces
What to do about the hazards Queensland 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Queensland floods.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Queensland sits in.
- 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 Queensland’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Queensland’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Queensland
How is Queensland’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Queensland’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Queensland flood?
Queensland’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is Queensland at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Queensland has burned since 1986, the last in 2014, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Queensland?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Queensland.
Is radon a problem in Queensland?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.1% of 86 homes tested in Queensland’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).