Photo: The Heliotype Co. Ltd.: Publisher · Public domainLacombe is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Government of Alberta
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Lacombe, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Lacombe sits near the middle: $0.016 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. About as many homes carry radon around Lacombe as elsewhere, 7.5% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Lacombe a grade of A−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Lacombe’s hazards
For Lacombe, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Lacombe faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Lacombe grades A− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Lacombe’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #251 of 474 in Alberta and #686 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Lacombe has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Lacombe’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Lacombe each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Lacombe: forest fuel is 0.2% within 5 km and 0.7% 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
Near-zero burning puts Lacombe with 386 of the 478 towns in Alberta, far below Wainwright 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 holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Lacombe sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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 Lacombe (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Lacombe, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Government of Alberta studied flooding in an area that includes Lacombe (1996); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lacombe Flood Hazard Study | Government of Alberta | 1996 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, but Lacombe has one.
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 Lacombe 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Lacombe $0.016 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.
With $0.016 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Lacombe is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.5 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Alberta: Lacombe’s $0.016 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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (71%) face more earthquake damage than Lacombe.
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).
For Lacombe the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
7.5% of homes tested around Lacombe are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Lacombe’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 7.5% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Lacombe, 7.5% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Alberta (7.5%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Lacombe’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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.
A low area share in Lacombe 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). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the David Thompson Regional Health Authority
Where to get warnings in Lacombe
Alerts for Lacombe 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 Lacombe 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)
How Lacombe’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lacombe | Low | $0.016 | 7.5% | Yes |
| Lacombe County 11,072 · 4.2 km | Low | $0.014 | 7.5% | Yes |
| Blackfalds 12,258 · 11 km | Low | $0.018 | 7.5% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Lacombe (low), with Lacombe County next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Lacombe faces
Practical steps for Lacombe’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
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Lacombe.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Lacombe’s included.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Lacombe is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Lacombe.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lacombe
How big is the earthquake risk in Lacombe?
Expected earthquake damage in Lacombe comes to $0.016 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Lacombe at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Lacombe (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How is Lacombe’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Lacombe A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Lacombe flood?
There is flood mapping for Lacombe on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Lacombe?
7.5% of the 107 homes Health Canada tested around Lacombe topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).