Photo: dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada · CC BY 2.0Coalhurst’s hazards at a glance: a moderate wildfire record and 8.9% of area homes over the radon guideline
The burn rate around Coalhurst is 0.08% a year (3.1% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Seismic risk in Coalhurst sits near the middle: $0.029 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Coalhurst a grade of B−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Coalhurst’s hazards
For Coalhurst, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Coalhurst faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Coalhurst grades B− for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Coalhurst with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #454 of 474 in Alberta and #1,597 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.
Some fire around Coalhurst: 3.1% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 9.2% within 5 km
Past fire around Coalhurst’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Moderate: the land around Coalhurst burns at 0.08% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Around Coalhurst the forest is thin or far off: 0% of the land within 5 km and 0% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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
Coalhurst ranks 28th of the 478 towns in Alberta for burn rate, at 0.08% a year; Wainwright leads with 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.
Coalhurst is in the moderate band, which holds 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 2.1% rank higher.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Coalhurst
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Coalhurst: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Coalhurst, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 46% of towns in Alberta have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Coalhurst is not among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Coalhurst.
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 Coalhurst $0.029 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Coalhurst’s $0.029 is the typical figure ($0.030): ordinary ground for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Alberta peaks in Black Diamond ($0.048); Coalhurst, at $0.029, sits above the median of $0.013.
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: 51% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Coalhurst.
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 Coalhurst.
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 Coalhurst: 8.9% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Chinook Regional Health Authority
Near the middle for radon: Coalhurst’s area 8.9%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Coalhurst, 8.9% of tests topped the guideline, close to the typical town in Alberta (7.5%); 0.9% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Coalhurst is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have more.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Coalhurst’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Coalhurst
Alerts for Coalhurst 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 Coalhurst 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 Coalhurst
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coalhurst | Moderate | $0.029 | 8.9% | None listed |
| Lethbridge 113,671 · 8.5 km | Moderate | $0.025 | 8.9% | Yes |
| Lethbridge County 10,988 · 15 km | Low | $0.024 | 8.9% | Yes |
| Nobleford 1,694 · 18 km | Moderate | $0.026 | 8.9% | None listed |
| Picture Butte 2,380 · 18 km | Low | $0.023 | 8.9% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Coalhurst has the most fire on record (moderate); Nobleford follows (moderate).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Coalhurst faces
What to do about the hazards Coalhurst faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Coalhurst without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Coalhurst, 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. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Coalhurst until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Coalhurst’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Coalhurst
Is Coalhurst at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 3.1% of the land around Coalhurst since 1986 (last in 2012); at moderate, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Coalhurst flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Coalhurst’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How is Coalhurst’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Coalhurst’s Hazard risk grade is B−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Coalhurst?
Around Coalhurst, 112 survey homes were tested and 8.9% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Coalhurst?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Coalhurst’s buildings lose $0.029 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).