Photo: Grant Berg · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Grande Prairie: 1 on record, latest by Government of Alberta
Wildfire is rare near Grande Prairie: 0.5% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.01% a year. NRCan expects $0.018 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Grande Prairie, near the typical $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 8.9% of homes tested in Grande Prairie’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Grande Prairie a grade of B+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Grande Prairie’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Grande Prairie: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Grande Prairie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Grande Prairie grades B+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Grande Prairie’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #439 of 474 in Alberta and #1,386 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.
Wildfire is rare near Grande Prairie: 0.5% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.3% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Grande Prairie’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Grande Prairie fire takes 0.01% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Forest thickens with distance from Grande Prairie: 6.9% of the land within 5 km, 13% 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
At 0.01% a year, Grande Prairie is near the top in Alberta: 56th of 478, behind Wainwright (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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Grande Prairie among them, though its rate is above zero; 7.5% 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 Grande Prairie (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Grande Prairie, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2007 study by Government of Alberta covers Grande Prairie, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grande Prairie Flood Hazard Study | Government of Alberta | 2007 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, Grande Prairie 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 is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Grande Prairie’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Grande Prairie: $0.018 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
With $0.018 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Grande Prairie is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.6 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.018, Grande Prairie 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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 68% of its 2,611 towns sit above Grande Prairie.
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 loss is to Grande Prairie’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
8.9% of homes tested around Grande Prairie are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Peace Country Health: radon tests
Grande Prairie’s area, at 8.9%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
1% of tests around Grande Prairie passed 600 Bq/m³; over 200, its 8.9% matches the median in Alberta, 7.5%.
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: Grande Prairie, 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.
The survey sampled homes around Grande Prairie; 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 Grande Prairie
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Grande Prairie; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Grande Prairie, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Grande Prairie’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grande Prairie | Low | $0.018 | 8.9% | Yes |
| Grande Prairie County No. 1 25,883 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.015 | 8.9% | Yes |
The fire record around Grande Prairie County No. 1 is a touch heavier than Grande Prairie’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Grande Prairie faces
Practical steps for Grande Prairie’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- 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 Grande Prairie is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Grande Prairie’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Grande Prairie.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Grande Prairie’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Grande Prairie
Is radon a problem in Grande Prairie?
The area’s survey found 8.9% of 203 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Grande Prairie.
Is Grande Prairie at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Grande Prairie’s low band (0.5% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Grande Prairie?
Expected earthquake damage in Grande Prairie comes to $0.018 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Grande Prairie flood?
There is flood mapping for Grande Prairie on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Grande Prairie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Grande Prairie’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).