Photo: Wilson Hui from Calgary, Canada · CC BY 2.0Hazard risk in Legal is lower than in almost every Canadian town
Burn scars are few around Legal, with 1.7% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.05% a year). Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.009 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is lower than usual: 1.4% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Legal grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Legal’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Legal: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Legal faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Legal grades A+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Legal’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 73 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Legal: 0% within 5 km, 1.7% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Legal’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.05% of the land around Legal each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Legal’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 17 km away.
With 0% forest fuel within 5 km and 2.3% within 25 km, the land around Legal 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 479
Legal ranks 38th of the 479 towns in Alberta for burn rate, at 0.05% a year; Wainwright leads with 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.
Legal is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Legal
Flood studies whose area touches Legal, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Legal has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Alberta reaches 46% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Legal.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Legal’s homes are at risk.
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 Legal: $0.009 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Legal it is only $0.009, 0.3 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Alberta expects $0.013 a year in shaking damage; Legal expects less, $0.009, and Black Diamond the most, $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 (86%) face more earthquake damage than Legal.
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 Legal’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).
1.4% of homes tested around Legal are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Capital Health
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Legal’s area has fewer, 1.4%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs lower around Legal than in most towns in Alberta: 1.4% against 7.5%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Legal’s band, which holds 37%.
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 survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Legal can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Legal
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Legal; 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. |
For fires near Legal, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Legal
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legal | Low | $0.009 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Morinville 10,763 · 17 km | Low | $0.014 | 1.4% | None listed |
| Bon Accord 1,457 · 17 km | Moderate | $0.011 | 1.4% | None listed |
The heaviest fire record nearby is Bon Accord’s, moderate to Legal’s low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Legal faces
Practical steps for Legal’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?
- 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 Legal floods.
- 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 Legal sits in.
- 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 Legal’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Legal’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Legal
Is radon a problem in Legal?
The area’s survey found 1.4% of 73 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Legal.
How big is the earthquake risk in Legal?
Expected earthquake damage in Legal comes to $0.009 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Legal at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Legal’s low band (1.7% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
How is Legal’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Legal’s Hazard risk grade is A+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Legal flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Legal, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
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).