Photo: Kurayba · CC BY-SA 2.0Malmo Plains faces fewer hazards than 98% of Canadian towns
Around Malmo Plains, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.013 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 1.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Malmo Plains a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Malmo Plains’s hazards
For Malmo Plains, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Malmo Plains faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Malmo Plains: A+
Earthquake risk and radon make Malmo Plains’ 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: 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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Malmo Plains: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Malmo Plains’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Around Malmo Plains fire takes 0.000% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Malmo Plains’ homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 24 km away.
Around Malmo Plains the forest is thin or far off: 1.3% of the land within 5 km and 0.4% 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
Little or nothing burns around Malmo Plains in a typical year; 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta share that, and Wainwright leads 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Malmo Plains, burning rounds to zero.
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 Malmo Plains (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Malmo Plains: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2024 study by Government of Alberta covers Malmo Plains, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Saskatchewan River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 46% of towns in Alberta have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Malmo Plains is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Malmo Plains’ homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Malmo Plains: $0.013 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.013 per $1,000, Malmo Plains carries 0.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Malmo Plains runs at $0.013 a year, near the $0.013 of the typical town in Alberta; Black Diamond has $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 Malmo Plains.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Malmo Plains is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
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 Malmo Plains are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Malmo Plains’ area, at 1.4%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Capital Health, Malmo Plains included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Alberta is 7.5% over 200 Bq/m³; around Malmo Plains it is 1.4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Malmo Plains 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.
Whatever Malmo Plains’ area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Malmo Plains
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Malmo Plains; 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 Malmo Plains 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 Malmo Plains
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malmo Plains | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Pleasantview 3,746 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Royal Gardens 3,392 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Empire Park 4,817 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Allendale 2,951 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Westbrook Estates 2,838 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Belgravia 5,478 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
Nowhere around Malmo Plains burns more: Pleasantview, 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 Malmo Plains faces
Practical steps for Malmo Plains’ 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Malmo Plains.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Malmo Plains 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 Malmo Plains until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Malmo Plains’ included.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Malmo Plains
How big is the earthquake risk in Malmo Plains?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Malmo Plains $0.013 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Malmo Plains flood?
A flood study covers Malmo Plains on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Malmo Plains at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Malmo Plains’ band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2023), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Malmo Plains?
1.4% of the 73 homes Health Canada tested around Malmo Plains topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Malmo Plains’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Malmo Plains 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).