Photo: Qyd · CC BY 2.5Wildfire moderate, radon 8.9%: how Grande Cache stands on hazards
The burn rate around Grande Cache is 0.07% a year (2.8% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.014 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Grande Cache grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Grande Cache’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Grande Cache: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Grande Cache faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Grande Cache: B+
Earthquake risk and radon make Grande Cache’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #276 of 474 in Alberta and #1,084 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Some fire around Grande Cache: 2.8% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 1.2% within 5 km
Past fire around Grande Cache’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Moderate: the land around Grande Cache burns at 0.07% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Grande Cache: 34% of the land within 5 km, 41% 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
Wainwright burns fastest in Alberta at 1.43% a year; Grande Cache, at 0.07%, ranks 32nd 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.
Grande Cache 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.
No flood study is listed for Grande Cache
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Grande Cache: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
An empty entry for Grande Cache on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, and Grande Cache has none.
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 Grande Cache 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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Grande Cache just $0.014 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.014 per $1,000, Grande Cache carries 0.5 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Grande Cache’s $0.014 is close to the median 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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 73% of its 2,611 towns sit above Grande Cache.
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 Grande Cache’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 Grande Cache: 8.9% 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 Grande Cache is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Peace Country Health as a whole, not for Grande Cache alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ordinary for towns in Alberta at 8.9% over 200 Bq/m³ (7.5% is the median), the area around Grande Cache had 1% 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 Grande Cache, 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Grande Cache only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Grande Cache
Alerts for Grande Cache 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 Grande Cache 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)
Get ready for what Grande Cache faces
Practical steps for Grande Cache’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Grande Cache’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Grande Cache.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Grande Cache takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Grande Cache’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Grande Cache
Does Grande Cache flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Grande Cache (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Grande Cache?
8.9% of the 203 homes Health Canada tested around Grande Cache topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Grande Cache?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Grande Cache’s buildings lose $0.014 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Grande Cache at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Grande Cache’s band is moderate, with 2.8% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Grande Cache’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Grande Cache B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).