Keswick faces fewer hazards than 98% of Canadian towns
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Keswick, 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. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 1.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Keswick grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Keswick’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Keswick: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Keswick faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Keswick: A+
Seismic risk and radon set Keswick’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: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. 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 Keswick: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Keswick’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Keswick is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Keswick’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 14 km away.
With 0.4% forest fuel within 5 km and 0.6% within 25 km, the land around Keswick gives a fire little to burn.
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
To three decimals the burn rate around Keswick is zero, as for 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta, while Wainwright reaches 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.
Keswick 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.
Government of Alberta has mapped flooding for Keswick (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Keswick, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Keswick, Government of Alberta’s from 2024, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Saskatchewan River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Keswick apart in Alberta, where 46% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Keswick’s homes are at risk.
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.
Little shaking expected in Keswick: $0.013 a year per $1,000
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, Keswick carries 0.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Behind earthquake risk sits data gathered across the city of Edmonton, with Keswick one part of it.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Keswick at $0.013 beside a median in Alberta of $0.013, with Black Diamond on top 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.
75% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Keswick.
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 Keswick’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).
Radon runs low around Keswick: 1.4% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Fewer homes than usual test high around Keswick: 1.4% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Keswick’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.
Few tests over the guideline: Keswick 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Keswick can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Capital Health)
Weather and fire alerts for Keswick
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Keswick; 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 Keswick come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Keswick
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keswick | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Glenridding Heights 4,388 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Ambleside 7,733 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Windermere 14,922 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| South Terwillegar 8,183 · 3.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Chappelle 14,815 · 3.9 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Haddow 4,026 · 4.3 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Keswick (low); Glenridding Heights comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Keswick faces
Practical steps for Keswick’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
- 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 Keswick until then.
- 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 Keswick’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Keswick without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Keswick’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Keswick
Is Keswick at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Keswick’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2023), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Keswick?
About $0.013 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Keswick.
Is radon a problem in Keswick?
1.4% of the 73 homes Health Canada tested around Keswick topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Keswick flood?
A flood study covers Keswick on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How is Keswick’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Keswick A+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).