Photo: John Wiley User:Jw4nvc - Santa Barbara, California · CC BY 3.0Flood mapping exists for Fort Macleod: 1 on record, latest by Government of Alberta
Fire reaches the land around Fort Macleod now and then: 7.4% within 25 km since 1986 (0.19% a year), below the high band. For earthquakes Fort Macleod is middling, $0.047 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon around Fort Macleod is ordinary for Canada: 8.9% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Fort Macleod a grade of C+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Fort Macleod’s hazards
For Fort Macleod, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Fort Macleod faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Fort Macleod grades C+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Fort Macleod’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #464 of 474 in Alberta and #1,868 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Some fire around Fort Macleod: 7.4% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Fort Macleod’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Moderate: the land around Fort Macleod burns at 0.19% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 13 km from Fort Macleod’s homes, none within 5 km.
With 0% forest fuel within 5 km and 0% within 25 km, the land around Fort Macleod gives a fire little to burn.
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
Wainwright burns fastest in Alberta at 1.43% a year; Fort Macleod, at 0.19%, ranks 17th of 478.
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.
Fort Macleod is in the moderate band, which holds 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 2.1% 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 Fort Macleod (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Fort Macleod: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Fort Macleod is Government of Alberta’s, dated 2024; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Macleod Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Fort Macleod 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Fort Macleod’s homes are at risk.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Fort Macleod: $0.047 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
1.6 times the typical $0.030: Fort Macleod’s $0.047 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.047, Fort Macleod is above the typical town in Alberta ($0.013); Black Diamond has the most 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.
Fort Macleod sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 31% are higher.
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 Fort Macleod.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Fort Macleod: 8.9% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 8.9% over the guideline, the area around Fort Macleod is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Fort Macleod doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Chinook Regional Health Authority.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Fort Macleod, 8.9% of tests topped the guideline, close to the typical town in Alberta (7.5%); 0.9% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Fort Macleod, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are 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.
Whatever Fort Macleod’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Fort Macleod
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Fort Macleod; 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 Fort Macleod 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 Fort Macleod faces
Practical steps for Fort Macleod’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Fort Macleod without grading them.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Fort Macleod until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Fort Macleod, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Fort Macleod’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Fort Macleod
How big is the earthquake risk in Fort Macleod?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Fort Macleod’s buildings lose $0.047 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
How is Fort Macleod’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Fort Macleod’s Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Fort Macleod at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Fort Macleod’s band is moderate, with 7.4% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2012), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Fort Macleod flood?
A flood study covers Fort Macleod on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is radon a problem in Fort Macleod?
8.9% of the 112 homes Health Canada tested around Fort Macleod topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).