A flood study covers Shawnessy: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Government of Alberta
Little of the land around Shawnessy has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Shawnessy sits near the middle: $0.023 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 8.1% of homes tested in Shawnessy’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Shawnessy a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Shawnessy’s hazards
For Shawnessy, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Shawnessy faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Shawnessy grades B+ for hazard risk
For Shawnessy, 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 Shawnessy has burned: 0.2% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Shawnessy’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Shawnessy each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Shawnessy: forest fuel is 1.7% within 5 km and 2.4% within 25 km.
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 Shawnessy 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; Shawnessy 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.
A flood study covers Shawnessy, from Government of Alberta: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Shawnessy: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Government of Alberta holds the flood mapping that covers Shawnessy (2025), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pine Creek Flood Hazard Study | Government of Alberta | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 46% of towns in Alberta have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Shawnessy is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Shawnessy floods.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Shawnessy: $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: Shawnessy’s $0.023 is ordinary.
Shawnessy 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; Shawnessy 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.
Shawnessy 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Shawnessy.
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 Shawnessy: 8.1% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 8.1% over the guideline, the area around Shawnessy is about level with 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; Shawnessy’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 Shawnessy’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.
Whatever Shawnessy’s 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). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Calgary Health Region)
Where to get warnings in Shawnessy
Alerts for Shawnessy 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 Shawnessy 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)
How Shawnessy’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shawnessy | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Somerset 8,416 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Millrise 6,754 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Fish Creek Park 9,045 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Midnapore 7,022 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Bridlewood 12,547 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Evergreen 19,988 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
Bridlewood burns a little more than Shawnessy, 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 Shawnessy faces
Practical steps for Shawnessy’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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Shawnessy takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Shawnessy, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Shawnessy.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Shawnessy’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Shawnessy
Does Shawnessy flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Shawnessy; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Shawnessy?
8.1% of the 86 homes Health Canada tested around Shawnessy topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Shawnessy?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Shawnessy’s buildings lose $0.023 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Shawnessy at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Shawnessy’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2014), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Shawnessy’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Shawnessy 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).