Photo: Jack Hope from Calgary, Canada · CC BY 2.0Wildfire low, radon 8.1%: how Strathcona Park stands on hazards
Burn scars are few around Strathcona Park, with 0% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.000% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Strathcona Park as in most places, at $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Strathcona Park a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Strathcona Park’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Strathcona Park: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Strathcona Park faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Strathcona Park grades B+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Strathcona Park’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.
Little of the land around Strathcona Park has burned: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Strathcona Park’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Strathcona Park burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
With 2.4% forest fuel within 5 km and 3.2% within 25 km, the land around Strathcona Park 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
Near-zero burning puts Strathcona Park with 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta, far below Wainwright 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.
Strathcona Park shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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 Strathcona Park
Flood studies whose area touches Strathcona Park, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Strathcona Park on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Strathcona Park.
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 Strathcona Park’s 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.”
Expected shaking damage in Strathcona Park: $0.023 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Nothing unusual about Strathcona Park’s ground: $0.023 against a typical $0.030, 0.8 times.
Strathcona Park shares its earthquake risk numbers with the rest of the city of Calgary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Alberta expects $0.013 a year; Strathcona Park 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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Strathcona Park (54%).
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 Strathcona Park’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).
8.1% of homes tested around Strathcona Park are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Calgary Health Region
8.1% of tested homes around Strathcona Park were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Alberta has 7.5% over 200 Bq/m³; Strathcona Park’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.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Strathcona Park, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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.
The survey sampled homes around Strathcona Park; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Strathcona Park
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Strathcona Park; 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 Strathcona Park come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Strathcona Park’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strathcona Park | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Coach Hill 3,383 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Patterson 4,169 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| West Springs 11,632 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Westgate 3,139 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Aspen Woods 9,606 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Signal Hill 13,293 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Coach Hill (low) has the heaviest fire record of Strathcona Park’s neighbours, and Strathcona Park (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Strathcona Park faces
Practical steps for Strathcona Park’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Strathcona Park’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Strathcona Park’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Strathcona Park takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Strathcona Park.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Strathcona Park
How is Strathcona Park’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Strathcona Park grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Strathcona Park at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Strathcona Park’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2014) is short of the level that counts.
Does Strathcona Park flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Strathcona Park, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How big is the earthquake risk in Strathcona Park?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Strathcona Park.
Is radon a problem in Strathcona Park?
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 Strathcona Park.
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).