Photo: Mack Male from Edmonton, AB, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0A flood study covers Edmonton: 3 on the national inventory, the newest from Government of Alberta
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Edmonton, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.001% 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.
What stands out about Edmonton’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Edmonton: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Edmonton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Edmonton isn’t graded for hazard risk yet
Seismic risk and radon set Edmonton’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. 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.
Little of the land around Edmonton has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Edmonton’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Edmonton burns at 0.001% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 14 km from Edmonton’s homes since 1986.
Forest fuel is scarce around Edmonton: 0.2% of the land within 5 km, 0.5% 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 479
At 0.001% a year, Edmonton is near the top in Alberta: 79th of 479, behind Wainwright (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.
Edmonton is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
Edmonton is on the flood map inventory: 3 studies, latest by Government of Alberta
Flood studies whose area touches Edmonton, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
3 studies on the inventory touch Edmonton, the newest Government of Alberta’s from 2024, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Saskatchewan River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
| St. Albert Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
| Nisku Flood Hazard Study | Government of Alberta | 2014 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, Edmonton among them, below the 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Mapping around Edmonton goes back to the 2010s and peaks in the 2020s, with 2 of its 3 studies.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Edmonton.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Edmonton floods.
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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Low seismic risk in Edmonton: $0.013 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Edmonton it is only $0.013, 0.4 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Alberta: Edmonton’s $0.013 against $0.013; 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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 75% of its 2,611 towns sit above Edmonton.
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 Edmonton’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).
1.4% of homes tested around Edmonton are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Capital Health
At 1.4% over the guideline, the area around Edmonton is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Edmonton’s area, at 1.4%, is below 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.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Edmonton’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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Edmonton as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Edmonton
Alerts for Edmonton 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 Edmonton 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 Edmonton
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edmonton | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Garneau 8,492 · 0.7 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Queen Alexandra 5,106 · 0.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Strathcona 8,283 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| McKernan 2,880 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Downtown 12,880 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Allendale 2,951 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
Garneau (low) has the heaviest fire record of Edmonton’s neighbours, and Edmonton (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Edmonton faces
Practical steps for Edmonton’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- 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; Edmonton’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Edmonton without grading them.
- 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 Edmonton until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Edmonton’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Edmonton
How is Edmonton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Edmonton isn’t graded yet: Canada’s single grading run will set its Risk from earthquakes, radon and, one way only, wildfire.
Is Edmonton at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Edmonton’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2023) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Edmonton?
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 Edmonton.
How big is the earthquake risk in Edmonton?
About $0.013 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Edmonton.
Does Edmonton flood?
A flood study covers Edmonton on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
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).