Photo: outofthought · CC BY-SA 3.0Wildfire low, radon 8.1%: how Royal Oak stands on hazards
Fire seldom reaches Royal Oak: since 1986, 0% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.000% a year). NRCan expects $0.023 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Royal Oak, near the typical $0.030. Hazard risk gives Royal Oak a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Royal Oak’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Royal Oak: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Royal Oak faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Royal Oak: B+
Earthquake risk and radon make Royal Oak’s 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: 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.
Wildfire is rare near Royal Oak: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Past fire around Royal Oak’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
With 0.000% burned a year, Royal Oak is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Only 1.3% of the land within 25 km of Royal Oak is forest fuel, and 0.1% 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
Little or nothing burns around Royal Oak 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.
92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are in the low band and 7.5% above it; Royal Oak is among the many where the yearly burn rate rounds to zero.
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 Royal Oak
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Royal Oak: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Royal Oak, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Royal Oak.
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 Royal Oak’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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Royal Oak: $0.023 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.8 times the typical $0.030: Royal Oak’s $0.023 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Royal Oak’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.
Royal Oak’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 54% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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 model counts damage to Royal Oak’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Not measured by town: earthquake risk (the city of Calgary)
Radon about average around Royal Oak: 8.1% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Near the middle for radon: Royal Oak’s area 8.1%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Royal Oak 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: Royal Oak, 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Royal Oak can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Calgary Health Region
Weather and fire alerts for Royal Oak
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Royal Oak; 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 Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Oak | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Rocky Ridge 8,419 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Arbour Lake 10,454 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Tuscany 19,986 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Citadel 10,196 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Scenic Acres 8,026 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Rocky View County 50,260 · 3.2 km | Low | $0.024 | 8.1% | Yes |
Rocky View County burns a little more than Royal Oak, 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 Royal Oak faces
Practical steps for Royal Oak’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Royal Oak’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Royal Oak.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Royal Oak’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Royal Oak takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Royal Oak
How is Royal Oak’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Royal Oak B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Royal Oak?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Royal Oak’s buildings lose $0.023 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Royal Oak flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Royal Oak (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is Royal Oak at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Royal Oak’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2018), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Royal Oak?
8.1% of the 86 homes Health Canada tested around Royal Oak topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).