Few places are as safe from hazards as Ramsay Heights: it beats 98% of Canadian towns
Wildfire isn’t Ramsay Heights’ worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned 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). Hazard risk gives Ramsay Heights a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Ramsay Heights’s hazards
For Ramsay Heights, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Ramsay Heights faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Ramsay Heights grades A+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Ramsay Heights’ 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. The radon share rests on 73 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Ramsay Heights: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Ramsay Heights’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Ramsay 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 Ramsay Heights’ homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 22 km away.
Forest makes up 1.3% of the land within 5 km of Ramsay Heights and 0.5% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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 Ramsay Heights, 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Ramsay Heights is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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 Ramsay Heights (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Ramsay Heights: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Government of Alberta holds the flood mapping that covers Ramsay Heights (2024), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Saskatchewan River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, Ramsay Heights 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.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Ramsay 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 Ramsay Heights: $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 Ramsay Heights it is only $0.013, 0.4 times as much.
Nobody publishes earthquake risk for Ramsay Heights alone, so this card uses the figure for the city of Edmonton.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Alberta is $0.013; Ramsay Heights, 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.
75% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Ramsay Heights.
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).
For Ramsay Heights the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Ramsay Heights: 1.4% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
A lower share than most: 1.4% of tested homes around Ramsay Heights, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Ramsay Heights shares its radon tests numbers with the rest of the Capital Health.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Alberta (7.5%), the area around Ramsay Heights has fewer high tests: 1.4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Ramsay Heights 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.
A low area share in Ramsay Heights doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Ramsay Heights
Alerts for Ramsay Heights 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. |
Evacuation orders for Ramsay Heights come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Ramsay 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ramsay Heights | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Brookside 3,173 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Bulyea Heights 3,264 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Rhatigan Ridge 7,066 · 1.9 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| River Valley Oleskiw 9,922 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Westbrook Estates 2,838 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Patricia Heights 4,355 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Ramsay Heights (low), with Brookside next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Ramsay Heights faces
Practical steps for Ramsay Heights’ 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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Ramsay Heights.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Ramsay Heights’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Ramsay Heights, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Ramsay Heights is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Ramsay Heights
Does Ramsay Heights flood?
There is flood mapping for Ramsay Heights on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Ramsay Heights at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Ramsay Heights’ low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2023) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Ramsay Heights?
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 Ramsay Heights.
How big is the earthquake risk in Ramsay Heights?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Ramsay Heights’ buildings lose $0.013 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
How is Ramsay Heights’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Ramsay 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).