Photo: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Lac Ste. Anne County is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Government of Alberta
Fire seldom reaches Lac Ste. Anne County: since 1986, 0.9% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.02% a year). Seismic risk runs low: $0.013 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is about average around Lac Ste. Anne County: 9.6% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Lac Ste. Anne County grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Lac Ste. Anne County’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lac Ste. Anne County: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lac Ste. Anne County faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Lac Ste. Anne County: B+
The grade weighs Lac Ste. Anne County’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #271 of 474 in Alberta and #1,079 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Lac Ste. Anne County: 0% within 5 km, 0.9% within 25 km
Past fire around Lac Ste. Anne County’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Lac Ste. Anne County burns at 0.02% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 7.6 km from Lac Ste. Anne County’s homes since 1986.
Homes in Lac Ste. Anne County sit on open or built-up ground (4.8% forest fuel within 5 km); the wider 25 km holds 11%.
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 0.02% a year, Lac Ste. Anne County is near the top in Alberta: 48th 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.
Some fire is mapped around Lac Ste. Anne County, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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 Lac Ste. Anne County (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Lac Ste. Anne County: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2024 study by Government of Alberta covers Lac Ste. Anne County, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sangudo Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, Lac Ste. Anne County 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Lac Ste. Anne County.
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.
Little shaking expected in Lac Ste. Anne County: $0.013 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Lac Ste. Anne County’s $0.013 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.4 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Alberta: Lac Ste. Anne County’s $0.013 sits by the median of $0.013, while Black Diamond reaches $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.
Earthquakes cost less around Lac Ste. Anne County than in 75% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Lac Ste. Anne County’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
9.6% of homes tested around Lac Ste. Anne County are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Radon tests for the Aspen Regional Health Authority
Around Lac Ste. Anne County, 9.6% 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 runs higher around Lac Ste. Anne County than in most towns in Alberta: 9.6% over the guideline (7.5% is typical), 0.5% over 600.
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 Lac Ste. Anne County 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 survey sampled homes around Lac Ste. Anne County; 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 Lac Ste. Anne County
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Lac Ste. Anne County; 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 Lac Ste. Anne County 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 Lac Ste. Anne County faces
What to do about the hazards Lac Ste. Anne County 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Lac Ste. Anne County’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Lac Ste. Anne County floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Lac Ste. Anne County’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Lac Ste. Anne County sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lac Ste. Anne County
Is Lac Ste. Anne County at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.9% of the land within 25 km of Lac Ste. Anne County has burned since 1986, the last in 2024, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Lac Ste. Anne County’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Lac Ste. Anne County B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Lac Ste. Anne County flood?
Lac Ste. Anne County’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Lac Ste. Anne County?
In Health Canada’s survey, 9.6% of 219 homes tested in Lac Ste. Anne County’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lac Ste. Anne County?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Lac Ste. Anne County’s buildings lose $0.013 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).