Photo: Daniel from Glasgow, United Kingdom · CC BY 2.0A flood study covers Rosscarrock: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Government of Alberta
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Rosscarrock, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquake risk in Rosscarrock is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.023 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. About as many homes carry radon around Rosscarrock as elsewhere, 8.1% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Rosscarrock grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Rosscarrock’s hazards
For Rosscarrock, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Rosscarrock faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Rosscarrock grades B+ for hazard risk
For Rosscarrock, 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.
Little of the land around Rosscarrock has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Rosscarrock’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Rosscarrock’s 0.000% is in the low band.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 7.5 km from Rosscarrock’s homes, none within 5 km.
With 0.3% forest fuel within 5 km and 2.2% within 25 km, the land around Rosscarrock 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
Wainwright has the highest burn rate in Alberta, 1.43% a year; around Rosscarrock, 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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Rosscarrock sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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.
Government of Alberta has mapped flooding for Rosscarrock (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Rosscarrock: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2025 study by Government of Alberta covers Rosscarrock, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| 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 Rosscarrock has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Rosscarrock’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Rosscarrock: $0.023 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.023 per $1,000, Rosscarrock’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.8 times).
Rosscarrock 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; Rosscarrock 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.
Rosscarrock sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 54% expect more shaking damage.
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).
For Rosscarrock the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
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 Rosscarrock: 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
Rosscarrock’s area, at 8.1%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Alberta has 7.5% over 200 Bq/m³; Rosscarrock’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.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Rosscarrock’s 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Rosscarrock’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Rosscarrock
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Rosscarrock; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Rosscarrock come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Rosscarrock
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rosscarrock | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Westgate 3,139 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Spruce Cliff 6,691 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Killarney/Glengarry 7,935 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Wildwood 4,177 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Glenbrook 10,185 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Signal Hill 13,293 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Rosscarrock (low), with Westgate next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Rosscarrock faces
Practical steps for Rosscarrock’s 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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Rosscarrock is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Rosscarrock’s 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 Rosscarrock.
- 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 Rosscarrock.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Rosscarrock
How big is the earthquake risk in Rosscarrock?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Rosscarrock $0.023 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Rosscarrock’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Rosscarrock B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Rosscarrock at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Rosscarrock’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2014) is short of the level that counts.
Does Rosscarrock flood?
There is flood mapping for Rosscarrock on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Rosscarrock?
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 Rosscarrock.
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).