Photo: Rural Health Professions Action Plan from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada · CC BY 2.0Hazards in Carstairs: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 8.1% of tested homes
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Carstairs’ homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Earthquake risk in Carstairs is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.022 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Carstairs grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Carstairs’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Carstairs: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Carstairs faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Carstairs grades B+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Carstairs’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #279 of 474 in Alberta and #1,093 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.
Few fires near Carstairs: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Carstairs’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Carstairs’ 0.000% is in the low band.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Carstairs’ homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 21 km away.
Only 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Carstairs 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
To three decimals the burn rate around Carstairs is zero, as for 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta, while Wainwright reaches 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Carstairs, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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 Carstairs
Flood studies whose area touches Carstairs, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Carstairs, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, and Carstairs has none.
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 Carstairs 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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Carstairs $0.022 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.
Nothing unusual about Carstairs’ ground: $0.022 against a typical $0.030, 0.7 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Carstairs’ $0.022 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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Carstairs (61%).
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 loss is to Carstairs’ buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
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 Carstairs: 8.1% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Calgary Health Region: radon tests
Carstairs’ area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.1% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Carstairs’ area, at 8.1%, is close to the median in Alberta (7.5%).
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 Carstairs’ 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.
One home in Carstairs can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Carstairs
Alerts for Carstairs 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 Carstairs 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)
Hazards in the places around Carstairs
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carstairs | Low | $0.022 | 8.1% | None listed |
| Didsbury 5,185 · 12 km | Low | $0.017 | 8.1% | Yes |
| Crossfield 4,075 · 15 km | Low | $0.019 | 8.1% | None listed |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Carstairs (low), with Didsbury next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Carstairs faces
Practical steps for Carstairs’ 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
- 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 Carstairs.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Carstairs’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Carstairs’.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Carstairs takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Carstairs
Does Carstairs flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Carstairs, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How big is the earthquake risk in Carstairs?
Expected earthquake damage in Carstairs comes to $0.022 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Carstairs’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Carstairs grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Carstairs?
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 Carstairs.
Is Carstairs at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Carstairs’ low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2017) 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).