Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainFlood mapping exists for Silver Springs: 1 on record, latest by Government of Alberta
Wildfire is rare near Silver Springs: 0% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.000% a year. For earthquakes Silver Springs is middling, $0.023 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. About as many homes carry radon around Silver Springs as elsewhere, 8.1% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Silver Springs a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Silver Springs’s hazards
For Silver Springs, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Silver Springs faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Silver Springs grades B+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Silver Springs’ grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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.
Wildfire is rare near Silver Springs: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Silver Springs’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.000% of the land a year, Silver Springs’ burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Little near Silver Springs’ homes can carry a forest fire; only 0.2% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 1.9% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Silver Springs, as for 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta; Wainwright tops the list 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; Silver Springs 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.
Government of Alberta has mapped flooding for Silver Springs (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Silver Springs, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Silver Springs, Government of Alberta’s from 2025, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bow and Elbow River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Silver Springs is one of the 46% of towns in Alberta with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Silver Springs’ homes are at risk.
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 Silver Springs $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.
At $0.023 per $1,000, Silver Springs’ earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.8 times).
Figures for earthquake risk are published for the city of Calgary as a whole, not for Silver Springs alone.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.023, Silver Springs 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 Silver Springs.
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 Silver Springs.
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 Silver Springs: 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.
Near the middle for radon: Silver Springs’ area 8.1%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Silver Springs doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Calgary Health Region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Alberta has 7.5% over 200 Bq/m³; Silver Springs’ 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.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Silver Springs, 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 Silver Springs’ 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 Silver Springs
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Silver Springs; 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 Silver Springs, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Silver Springs’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silver Springs | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Ranchlands 7,376 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Bowness 11,548 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Scenic Acres 8,026 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Dalhousie 8,617 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Hawkwood 9,188 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Varsity 12,605 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Silver Springs has the most fire on record (low); Ranchlands follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Silver Springs faces
Practical steps for Silver Springs’ 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Silver Springs’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Silver Springs without grading them.
- 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 Silver Springs until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Silver Springs, 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 Silver Springs
How big is the earthquake risk in Silver Springs?
Expected earthquake damage in Silver Springs comes to $0.023 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Silver Springs’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Silver Springs grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Silver Springs flood?
A flood study covers Silver Springs on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is radon a problem in Silver Springs?
8.1% of the 86 homes Health Canada tested around Silver Springs topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Silver Springs at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Silver Springs’ band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2018), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
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).