Photo: Kurt Bauschardt from Edmonton, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Patricia Heights: it beats 98% of Canadian towns
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Patricia Heights, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.013 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, just 1.4% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Patricia Heights grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Patricia Heights’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Patricia Heights: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Patricia Heights faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Patricia Heights: A+
The grade weighs Patricia Heights’ seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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. 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 Patricia Heights: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Patricia Heights’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Patricia Heights burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Patricia Heights’ homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 23 km away.
Forest fuel is scarce around Patricia Heights: 0.7% 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 478
Near-zero burning puts Patricia Heights with 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta, far below Wainwright 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%), Patricia Heights 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.
Government of Alberta has mapped flooding for Patricia Heights (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Patricia Heights: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2024 study by Government of Alberta covers Patricia Heights, 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
Patricia Heights is one of the 46% of towns in Alberta with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
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 Patricia Heights.
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 Patricia Heights: $0.013 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.4 times the typical $0.030: Patricia Heights’ $0.013 is low for Canada.
Patricia Heights shares its earthquake risk numbers with the rest of the city of Edmonton.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Patricia Heights’ $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.
Patricia Heights 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 Patricia Heights’ 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).
1.4% of homes tested around Patricia Heights are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Patricia Heights’ survey area reads 1.4% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Patricia Heights than in most towns in Alberta: 1.4% against 7.5%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Patricia Heights is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have 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 share describes the area, not a house: in Patricia Heights as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Data for radon tests covers the Capital Health
Weather and fire alerts for Patricia Heights
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Patricia Heights; 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 Patricia Heights 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 Patricia Heights’ neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patricia Heights | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Elmwood 2,522 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Lynnwood 3,452 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Meadowlark Park 2,671 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Callingwood South 7,844 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| River Valley Oleskiw 9,922 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Laurier Heights 3,048 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Patricia Heights (low); Elmwood comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Patricia Heights faces
What to do about the hazards Patricia Heights 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Patricia Heights floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Patricia Heights’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Patricia Heights’.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Patricia Heights sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Patricia Heights
How big is the earthquake risk in Patricia Heights?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Patricia Heights $0.013 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Patricia Heights?
Around Patricia Heights, 73 survey homes were tested and 1.4% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Patricia Heights flood?
Patricia Heights’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is Patricia Heights at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Patricia Heights since 1986 (last in 2023); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Patricia Heights’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Patricia Heights 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).