Photo: Qyd · CC BY-SA 3.0A flood study covers Hinton: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Government of Alberta
Burn scars are few around Hinton, with 1.5% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.04% a year). Seismic risk in Hinton sits near the middle: $0.024 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hinton’s survey area, 9.6% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Hinton grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Hinton’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Hinton: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Hinton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Hinton: B
Two inputs always count for Hinton, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #450 of 474 in Alberta and #1,561 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.
Little of the land around Hinton has burned: 1.1% within 5 km, 1.5% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Hinton’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.04% of the land a year, Hinton’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
There is forest near Hinton’s homes (88% within 5 km) and more of it further out (95% 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
The land around Hinton burns at 0.04% a year, the 40th highest rate of 478 towns in Alberta; Wainwright tops it 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Hinton 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 Hinton (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Hinton, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Hinton the inventory points to Government of Alberta’s 2025 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hinton Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Hinton apart in Alberta, where 46% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Hinton.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Hinton $0.024 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.024 per $1,000, Hinton’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Alberta: Hinton’s $0.024 against a median of $0.013, with Black Diamond 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.
Middle of the pack: 54% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Hinton.
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 Hinton’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).
Some radon around Hinton: 9.6% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Aspen Regional Health Authority: radon tests
Hinton’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 9.6% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Hinton, 9.6% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 0.5% over 600, against a median of 7.5% in Alberta.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Hinton with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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 share describes the area, not a house: in Hinton as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Hinton
Alerts for Hinton 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. |
Evacuation orders for Hinton come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Hinton faces
What to do about the hazards Hinton 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Hinton.
- 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 Hinton’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Hinton’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Hinton is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Hinton
How is Hinton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Hinton B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Hinton flood?
There is flood mapping for Hinton on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Hinton?
About $0.024 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Hinton.
Is radon a problem in Hinton?
In Health Canada’s survey, 9.6% of 219 homes tested in Hinton’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Hinton at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 1.5% of the land within 25 km of Hinton has burned since 1986, the last in 2022, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
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).