Photo: Unknown author Unknown author · Public domainFlood mapping exists for Cardston: 1 on record, latest by Government of Alberta
Burn scars are few around Cardston, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.001% a year). Earthquake risk in Cardston is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.034 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Radon around Cardston is ordinary for Canada: 8.9% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Cardston a grade of B−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Cardston’s hazards
For Cardston, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Cardston faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Cardston: B−
Earthquake risk and radon make Cardston’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #457 of 474 in Alberta and #1,668 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.
Few fires near Cardston: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Cardston’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Cardston burns at 0.001% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Cardston’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 24 km away.
Only 0.3% of the land within 25 km of Cardston is forest fuel, and 0% 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
The land around Cardston burns at 0.001% a year, the 79th highest rate of 478 towns in Alberta; Wainwright tops it 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Cardston burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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 Cardston (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Cardston: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Cardston the inventory points to Government of Alberta’s 2024 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardston Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, but Cardston has one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Cardston to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Cardston: $0.034 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.034 per $1,000, Cardston’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.1 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.034, Cardston 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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Cardston (46%).
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 Cardston.
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 Cardston: 8.9% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Radon tests for the Chinook Regional Health Authority
Cardston’s area, at 8.9%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ordinary for towns in Alberta at 8.9% over 200 Bq/m³ (7.5% is the median), the area around Cardston had 0.9% over 600.
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 Cardston, 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.
A low area share in Cardston doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Cardston
Alerts for Cardston 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Cardston to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Cardston
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardston | Low | $0.034 | 8.9% | Yes |
| Cardston County 4,938 · 9.0 km | Moderate | $0.039 | 8.9% | Yes |
| Blood 148 4,404 · 17 km | Low | $0.045 | 8.9% | Yes |
The heaviest fire record nearby is Cardston County’s, moderate to Cardston’s low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Cardston faces
Practical steps for Cardston’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. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Cardston’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Cardston, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Cardston 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 Cardston.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Cardston
Is Cardston at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Cardston’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2003), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Cardston flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Cardston; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Cardston?
8.9% of the 112 homes Health Canada tested around Cardston topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Cardston’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Cardston grades B− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Cardston?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Cardston $0.034 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).