Photo: Masterhatch · CC0Hazard risk in Hanna is lower than in 85% of Canadian towns
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Hanna, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.010 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. About as many homes carry radon around Hanna as elsewhere, 7.5% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hanna grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Hanna’s hazards
For Hanna, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Hanna faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hanna grades A for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Hanna, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #230 of 474 in Alberta and #573 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.
Wildfire is rare near Hanna: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Hanna’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Hanna burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
With 0% forest fuel within 5 km and 0% within 25 km, the land around Hanna 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
To three decimals the burn rate around Hanna is zero, as for 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta, while Wainwright reaches 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Hanna, burning rounds to zero.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Hanna
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Hanna: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
An empty entry for Hanna on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 46% of towns in Alberta have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Hanna is not among them.
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 Hanna’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.”
Little shaking expected in Hanna: $0.010 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Hanna’s $0.010 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.3 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Hanna’s $0.010 sits under the median in Alberta, $0.013, and well under Black Diamond’s $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: 86% of its 2,611 towns sit above Hanna.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Hanna is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
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 Hanna: 7.5% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Radon tests for the David Thompson Regional Health Authority
Around Hanna, 7.5% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Hanna is ordinary for towns in Alberta: 7.5%, beside a median of 7.5%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Hanna is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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.
A low area share in Hanna doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Hanna
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Hanna; 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 Hanna 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 Hanna faces
What to do about the hazards Hanna 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Hanna floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Hanna, 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 Hanna’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Hanna sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Hanna
Is radon a problem in Hanna?
In Health Canada’s survey, 7.5% of 107 homes tested in Hanna’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Hanna at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Hanna (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How is Hanna’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Hanna A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Hanna?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Hanna’s buildings lose $0.010 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Hanna flood?
Nothing is listed for Hanna on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
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).