Photo: Kaz Andrew from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Hazard risk in Alberta Avenue is lower than in 98% of Canadian towns
Around Alberta Avenue, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs low: $0.013 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 1.4% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Alberta Avenue a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Alberta Avenue’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Alberta Avenue: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Alberta Avenue faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Alberta Avenue grades A+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Alberta Avenue’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #11 of 474 in Alberta and #22 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 73 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Alberta Avenue: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Alberta Avenue’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Alberta Avenue burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Only 0.4% of the land within 25 km of Alberta Avenue is forest fuel, and 0.1% 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
Near-zero burning puts Alberta Avenue 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Alberta Avenue is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 7.5% 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.
No flood study is listed for Alberta Avenue
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Alberta Avenue: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Alberta Avenue, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Alberta Avenue; in Alberta, 46% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
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 Alberta Avenue 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.”
Little shaking expected in Alberta Avenue: $0.013 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Alberta Avenue it is only $0.013, 0.4 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Alberta Avenue ($0.013) matches the middle in Alberta ($0.013), far from Black Diamond’s $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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 75% of its 2,611 towns sit above Alberta Avenue.
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 Alberta Avenue’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). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of Edmonton
1.4% of homes tested around Alberta Avenue are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Capital Health: radon tests
Alberta Avenue’s survey area reads 1.4% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Alberta Avenue (1.4%) than in the typical town in Alberta (7.5%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Alberta Avenue shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 Alberta Avenue 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 Alberta Avenue
Alerts for Alberta Avenue 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 Alberta Avenue 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 Alberta Avenue
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alberta Avenue | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Delton 2,657 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Parkdale 4,029 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Westwood 3,279 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Eastwood 4,681 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| McCauley 4,060 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Virginia Park 3,431 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
Alberta Avenue’s low band tops its neighbours; Delton is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Alberta Avenue faces
Practical steps for Alberta Avenue’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
- 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 Alberta Avenue.
- 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 Alberta Avenue’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Alberta Avenue’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Alberta Avenue takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Alberta Avenue
How big is the earthquake risk in Alberta Avenue?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Alberta Avenue $0.013 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Alberta Avenue?
The area’s survey found 1.4% of 73 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Alberta Avenue.
Does Alberta Avenue flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Alberta Avenue, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Alberta Avenue at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Alberta Avenue: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
How is Alberta Avenue’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Alberta Avenue grades A+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
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).