Photo: Cherry2207 · CC BY 4.0Hazard risk in Pollard Meadows is lower than in 98% of Canadian towns
Fire has left almost no mark near Pollard Meadows: 0% of the land 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. In Health Canada’s survey, just 1.4% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Pollard Meadows grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Pollard Meadows’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Pollard Meadows: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Pollard Meadows faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Pollard Meadows grades A+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Pollard Meadows’ 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: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. 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 Pollard Meadows: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Pollard Meadows’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Pollard Meadows burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
With 0% forest fuel within 5 km and 0.3% within 25 km, the land around Pollard Meadows 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Pollard Meadows, as for 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta; Wainwright tops the list 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 Pollard Meadows, 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.
No flood study is listed for Pollard Meadows
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Pollard Meadows: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Pollard Meadows, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 46% of towns in Alberta have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Pollard Meadows is not among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Pollard Meadows 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.”
Low seismic risk in Pollard Meadows: $0.013 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Pollard Meadows it is only $0.013, 0.4 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Alberta is $0.013; Pollard Meadows, at $0.013, is right beside it, and Black Diamond tops the list 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.
Pollard Meadows 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).
The loss is to Pollard Meadows’ 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). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Edmonton
Radon runs low around Pollard Meadows: 1.4% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Capital Health: radon tests
A lower share than most: 1.4% of tested homes around Pollard Meadows, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Pollard Meadows (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.
Under 5% puts Pollard Meadows with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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 survey sampled homes around Pollard Meadows; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Pollard Meadows
Alerts for Pollard Meadows 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 Pollard Meadows to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Pollard Meadows’ neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pollard Meadows | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Daly Grove 3,486 · 0.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Meyokumin 4,069 · 0.9 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Bisset 3,049 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Weinlos 3,243 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Crawford Plains 3,075 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Sakaw 3,453 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
Nowhere around Pollard Meadows burns more: Daly Grove, 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 Pollard Meadows faces
Practical steps for Pollard Meadows’ 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
- 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 Pollard Meadows.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Pollard Meadows’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Pollard Meadows takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Pollard Meadows’ figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Pollard Meadows
Is Pollard Meadows at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Pollard Meadows since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
Does Pollard Meadows flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Pollard Meadows, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is radon a problem in Pollard Meadows?
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 Pollard Meadows.
How big is the earthquake risk in Pollard Meadows?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Pollard Meadows $0.013 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Pollard Meadows’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Pollard Meadows 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).