Photo: Tracklan2 · CC0Few places are as safe from hazards as Griesbach: it beats 98% of Canadian towns
Wildfire isn’t Griesbach’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned 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. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 1.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Griesbach a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Griesbach’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Griesbach: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Griesbach faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Griesbach: A+
Seismic risk and radon set Griesbach’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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. The radon share rests on 73 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Griesbach: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Griesbach’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Griesbach burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Around Griesbach the forest is thin or far off: 0% of the land within 5 km and 0.3% 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
Wainwright has the highest burn rate in Alberta, 1.43% a year; around Griesbach, as around 386 of the 478 towns, it rounds to zero.
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.
Griesbach shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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 Griesbach
Flood studies whose area touches Griesbach, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Griesbach has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 46% of towns in Alberta have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Griesbach is not among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Griesbach.
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 Griesbach just $0.013 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.
At $0.013 per $1,000, Griesbach carries 0.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Griesbach’s $0.013 is close to the median in Alberta, $0.013; Black Diamond is highest 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.
Earthquakes cost less around Griesbach than in 75% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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 Griesbach’s 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). · Not measured by town: earthquake risk (the city of Edmonton)
1.4% of homes tested around Griesbach are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 1.4% over the guideline, the area around Griesbach is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Griesbach doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Capital Health.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Griesbach (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.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Griesbach’s band, which holds 37%.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Griesbach only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Griesbach
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Griesbach; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Griesbach come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Griesbach’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Griesbach | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Beaumaris 4,125 · 0.7 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Lorelei 4,380 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Caernarvon 5,972 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Eaux Claires 3,334 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Carlisle 4,609 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Evansdale 5,602 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Griesbach has the most fire on record (low); Beaumaris follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Griesbach faces
Practical steps for Griesbach’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Griesbach’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Griesbach’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Griesbach.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Griesbach takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Griesbach
How is Griesbach’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Griesbach grades A+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Griesbach?
1.4% of the 73 homes Health Canada tested around Griesbach topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Griesbach?
About $0.013 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Griesbach.
Is Griesbach at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Griesbach since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
Does Griesbach flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Griesbach (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).