Few places are as safe from hazards as Granville: it beats 98% of Canadian towns
Wildfire barely registers for Granville, at 0% of the land 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 Granville a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Granville’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Granville: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Granville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Granville grades A+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Granville, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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.
Few fires near Granville: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Granville’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Granville each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Granville’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 20 km away.
Little near Granville’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0.2% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 0.7% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Granville, as for 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta; Wainwright tops the list 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Granville is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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 Granville
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Granville: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Granville, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, and Granville has none.
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 Granville.
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 Granville: $0.013 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Granville’s $0.013 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.4 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Alberta is $0.013; Granville, at $0.013, is right beside it, and Black Diamond tops the list 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.
Granville is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 75% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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 Granville’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). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of Edmonton
Radon runs low around Granville: 1.4% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 1.4% over the guideline, the area around Granville is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Alberta (7.5%), the area around Granville has fewer high tests: 1.4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Granville, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see 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.
The survey sampled homes around Granville; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests published for the Capital Health, not by town
Weather and fire alerts for Granville
Alerts for Granville 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 Granville to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Granville’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Granville | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Glastonbury 9,745 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| The Hamptons 12,008 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Lymburn 7,231 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Suder Greens 2,928 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Rosenthal 4,873 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Ormsby Place 4,412 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
Nowhere around Granville burns more: Glastonbury, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Granville faces
What to do about the hazards Granville faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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 Granville.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Granville’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Granville’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Granville takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Granville
Is radon a problem in Granville?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1.4% of 73 homes tested in Granville’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Granville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Granville grades A+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Granville flood?
Nothing is listed for Granville on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
How big is the earthquake risk in Granville?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Granville’s buildings lose $0.013 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Granville at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Granville has burned since 1986, the last in 2023, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
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).