Photo: Ham1ltoner1n · CC BY-SA 4.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Riverdale: it beats 98% of Canadian towns
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Riverdale, 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). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 1.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Riverdale a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Riverdale’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Riverdale: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Riverdale faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Riverdale grades A+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Riverdale with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Riverdale: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Riverdale’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.000% burned a year, Riverdale is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Around Riverdale the forest is thin or far off: 0.2% 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
Near-zero burning puts Riverdale 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%), Riverdale 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 Riverdale (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Riverdale, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Government of Alberta holds the flood mapping that covers Riverdale (2024), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Saskatchewan River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Riverdale 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.
Flood mapping is shown for Riverdale to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Riverdale just $0.013 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Riverdale’s $0.013 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.4 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Alberta: Riverdale’s $0.013 against $0.013; Black Diamond reaches $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 Riverdale.
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 Riverdale’s 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). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of Edmonton
Little radon around Riverdale: 1.4% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Capital Health
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Riverdale’s area, at 1.4%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Riverdale (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.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Riverdale; 63% sit higher.
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 Riverdale 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).
Weather and fire alerts for Riverdale
Alerts for Riverdale 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Riverdale are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Riverdale’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riverdale | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Boyle Street 5,862 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Bonnie Doon 6,697 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Holyrood 3,305 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Downtown 12,880 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Forest Heights 4,118 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| McCauley 4,060 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Riverdale (low), with Boyle Street next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Riverdale faces
What to do about the hazards Riverdale 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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Riverdale.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Riverdale’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Riverdale is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Riverdale’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Riverdale
Is Riverdale at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Riverdale: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
How is Riverdale’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Riverdale grades A+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Riverdale?
About $0.013 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Riverdale.
Does Riverdale flood?
There is flood mapping for Riverdale on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Riverdale?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1.4% of 73 homes tested in Riverdale’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).