Photo: Qyd · CC BY 2.5Sunalta is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Government of Alberta
Around Sunalta, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Sunalta sits near the middle: $0.023 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon around Sunalta is ordinary for Canada: 8.1% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Sunalta a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Sunalta’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Sunalta: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Sunalta faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sunalta grades B+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Sunalta’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: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Sunalta has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Sunalta’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.000% of the land a year around Sunalta, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 10 km from Sunalta’s homes, none within 5 km.
Forest fuel is scarce around Sunalta: 0% of the land within 5 km, 1.3% 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
Wainwright has the highest burn rate in Alberta, 1.43% a year; around Sunalta, 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.
Sunalta 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.
Government of Alberta has mapped flooding for Sunalta (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Sunalta: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Government of Alberta studied flooding in an area that includes Sunalta (2025); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bow and Elbow River Flood 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%; Sunalta 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 Sunalta 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 Sunalta: $0.023 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Sunalta’s $0.023 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.8 times as much).
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Calgary, Sunalta included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Sunalta’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.
Sunalta 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Sunalta’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Sunalta: 8.1% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Calgary Health Region
The survey area of Sunalta reads 8.1%, a shade from 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; Sunalta’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 Sunalta’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.
The survey sampled homes around Sunalta; 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 Sunalta
Alerts for Sunalta 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 Sunalta 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 Sunalta’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunalta | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Bankview 5,610 · 0.8 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Lower Mount Royal 3,136 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| South Calgary 4,412 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Downtown West End 2,796 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Upper Mount Royal 2,758 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Richmond 4,811 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.1% | Yes |
Sunalta’s low band tops its neighbours; Bankview is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Sunalta faces
Practical steps for Sunalta’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Sunalta’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Sunalta until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Sunalta’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Sunalta without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sunalta
How is Sunalta’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Sunalta’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Sunalta?
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 Sunalta.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sunalta?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Sunalta $0.023 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Sunalta flood?
A flood study covers Sunalta on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Sunalta at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Sunalta’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2014) is short of the level that counts.
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).