Photo: Rural Health Professions Action Plan from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada · CC BY 2.0Hazards in Elk Point: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 9.6% of tested homes
Little of the land around Elk Point has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.002% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.005 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Elk Point grades A− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Elk Point’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Elk Point: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Elk Point faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Elk Point grades A− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Elk Point’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Elk Point: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Elk Point’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Elk Point burns at 0.002% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 20 km from Elk Point’s homes, none within 5 km.
Around Elk Point the forest is thin or far off: 1.4% of the land within 5 km and 3.1% 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 479
In the top quarter in Alberta: Elk Point ranks 77th of 479 at 0.002% a year, with Wainwright first 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Elk Point stays low, with 92%.
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 Elk Point
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Elk Point: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Elk Point, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Elk Point; 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 Elk Point.
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 Elk Point: $0.005 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Elk Point it is only $0.005, 0.2 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.005, Elk Point is below the typical town in Alberta ($0.013); Black Diamond is highest 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.
At the bottom of Canada’s range, Elk Point has 96% of the 2,611 towns above it.
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 model counts damage to Elk Point’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Elk Point: 9.6% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Aspen Regional Health Authority: radon tests
Elk Point’s area, at 9.6%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Elk Point (9.6%) than in the typical town in Alberta (7.5%); 0.5% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Elk Point, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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 Elk Point; 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 Elk Point
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Elk Point; 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 Elk Point come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Elk Point faces
Practical steps for Elk Point’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 Elk Point is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Elk Point’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Elk Point.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Elk Point’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Elk Point
Is radon a problem in Elk Point?
The area’s survey found 9.6% of 219 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Elk Point.
How big is the earthquake risk in Elk Point?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Elk Point $0.005 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Elk Point’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Elk Point’s Hazard risk grade is A−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Elk Point flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Elk Point, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Elk Point at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Elk Point’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
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).