Hazard risk in Rutherford is lower than in 98% of Canadian towns
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Rutherford: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 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). Rutherford grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Rutherford’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Rutherford: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Rutherford faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Rutherford grades A+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Rutherford’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of 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.
Little of the land around Rutherford has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Rutherford’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Rutherford fire takes 0.000% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Rutherford’s homes came within 20 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest fuel is scarce around Rutherford: 0.8% 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
Of the 478 towns in Alberta, 386 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Rutherford among them; Wainwright leads at 1.43% a year.
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 Rutherford, 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 Rutherford
Flood studies whose area touches Rutherford, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Rutherford, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Rutherford; in Alberta, 46% of towns have one, below 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 Rutherford.
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.”
Little shaking expected in Rutherford: $0.013 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.013 per $1,000, Rutherford carries 0.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Rutherford doesn’t get its own earthquake risk figures; the ones here come from the city of Edmonton.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Alberta: Rutherford’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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 75% of its 2,611 towns sit above Rutherford.
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 Rutherford’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).
Little radon around Rutherford: 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. · Shared with the rest of the Capital Health: radon tests
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Rutherford’s area, at 1.4%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Alberta is 7.5% over 200 Bq/m³; around Rutherford 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: Rutherford 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.
One home in Rutherford can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Rutherford
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Rutherford; 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 Rutherford 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 Rutherford’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rutherford | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Callaghan 4,180 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Cavanagh 7,300 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Allard 8,148 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Paisley 2,897 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| MacEwan 6,102 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Twin Brooks 5,102 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Rutherford has the most fire on record (low); Callaghan follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Rutherford faces
Practical steps for Rutherford’s 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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Rutherford is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Rutherford.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Rutherford’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Rutherford’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Rutherford
How is Rutherford’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Rutherford A+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Rutherford?
About $0.013 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Rutherford.
Is Rutherford at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Rutherford’s 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 Rutherford?
1.4% of the 73 homes Health Canada tested around Rutherford topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Rutherford flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Rutherford (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).