Hazards in Ranchlands: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 8.1% of tested homes
Little of the land around Ranchlands has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.000% a year. For earthquakes Ranchlands is middling, $0.023 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Ranchlands a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Ranchlands’s hazards
For Ranchlands, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Ranchlands faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Ranchlands: B+
Earthquake risk and radon make Ranchlands’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Ranchlands has burned: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Ranchlands’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Ranchlands burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Only 1.3% of the land within 25 km of Ranchlands is forest fuel, and 0.2% 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
Wainwright has the highest burn rate in Alberta, 1.43% a year; around Ranchlands, 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Ranchlands is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Ranchlands
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Ranchlands: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The inventory has nothing for Ranchlands, 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 Ranchlands.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Ranchlands.
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 Ranchlands: $0.023 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.8 times the typical $0.030: Ranchlands’ $0.023 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.023, Ranchlands 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 54% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Ranchlands.
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 Ranchlands.
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
Some radon around Ranchlands: 8.1% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Calgary Health Region
The survey area of Ranchlands 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 Ranchlands 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: Ranchlands, 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.
Whatever Ranchlands’ area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Ranchlands
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Ranchlands; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Ranchlands, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Ranchlands
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranchlands | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Silver Springs 9,042 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Hawkwood 9,188 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Scenic Acres 8,026 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Arbour Lake 10,454 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Dalhousie 8,617 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Citadel 10,196 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
Citadel burns a little more than Ranchlands, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Ranchlands faces
Practical steps for Ranchlands’ 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. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Ranchlands’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Ranchlands until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Ranchlands without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Ranchlands, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Ranchlands
Does Ranchlands flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Ranchlands, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is radon a problem in Ranchlands?
The area’s survey found 8.1% of 86 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Ranchlands.
Is Ranchlands at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Ranchlands’ low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2018) is short of the level that counts.
How is Ranchlands’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Ranchlands grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Ranchlands?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Ranchlands $0.023 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).