Photo: Odysseus1479 · CC BY-SA 3.0Virginia Park faces fewer hazards than 98% of Canadian towns
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Virginia Park’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 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. Radon is lower than usual: 1.4% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Virginia Park grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Virginia Park’s hazards
For Virginia Park, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Virginia Park faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Virginia Park: A+
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Virginia Park 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. Only 73 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Virginia Park: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Virginia Park’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Virginia Park in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Virginia Park: forest fuel is 0.2% within 5 km and 0.3% 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
Among the 478 towns in Alberta, Wainwright burns fastest (1.43% a year); Virginia Park is with the 386 near zero.
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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Virginia Park, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
Virginia Park is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Government of Alberta
Flood studies whose area touches Virginia Park, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Government of Alberta studied flooding in an area that includes Virginia Park (2024); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| 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, Virginia Park 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 mapping is shown for Virginia Park 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.
Little shaking expected in Virginia Park: $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.
Virginia Park’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
Neither high nor low in Alberta: Virginia Park’s $0.013 sits by the median of $0.013, while 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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (75%) face more earthquake damage than Virginia Park.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Virginia Park.
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 Virginia Park: 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. · Measured across the Capital Health: radon tests
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Virginia Park’s area, at 1.4%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Alberta (7.5%), the area around Virginia Park 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.
Virginia Park 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Virginia Park’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Virginia Park
Alerts for Virginia Park 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 Virginia Park to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Virginia Park
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia Park | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Parkdale 4,029 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Boyle Street 5,862 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Forest Heights 4,118 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| McCauley 4,060 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Highlands 2,677 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | Yes |
| Eastwood 4,681 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.013 | 1.4% | None listed |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Virginia Park (low), with Parkdale next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Virginia Park faces
What to do about the hazards Virginia Park 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Virginia Park.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Virginia Park’s included.
- 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 Virginia Park.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Virginia Park takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Virginia Park
How is Virginia Park’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Virginia Park A+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Virginia Park at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Virginia Park since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
Is radon a problem in Virginia Park?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1.4% of 73 homes tested in Virginia Park’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Virginia Park flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Virginia Park; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Virginia Park?
Expected earthquake damage in Virginia Park comes to $0.013 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).