Photo: Festbock · CC BY-SA 3.0Medicine Hat faces fewer hazards than 97% of Canadian towns
Burn scars are few around Medicine Hat, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.005% a year). Seismic risk runs low: $0.007 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon around Medicine Hat is ordinary for Canada: 4.4% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Medicine Hat a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Medicine Hat’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Medicine Hat: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Medicine Hat faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Medicine Hat grades A+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Medicine Hat, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #212 of 474 in Alberta and #234 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.
Few fires near Medicine Hat: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km
Past fire around Medicine Hat’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Medicine Hat is 0.005%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The 5 km ring around Medicine Hat’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 7.9 km out.
Only 0% of the land within 25 km of Medicine Hat is forest fuel, and 0% close in.
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 0.005% a year, Medicine Hat is near the top in Alberta: 67th 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Medicine Hat 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.
Medicine Hat is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Government of Alberta
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Medicine Hat: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Medicine Hat is Government of Alberta’s, dated 2024; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medicine Hat Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 46% of towns in Alberta have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Medicine Hat is one of them.
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 Medicine Hat’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Low seismic risk in Medicine Hat: $0.007 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.2 times the typical $0.030: Medicine Hat’s $0.007 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Alberta: Medicine Hat’s $0.007 against a median of $0.013; Black Diamond has $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 (88%) face more earthquake damage than Medicine Hat.
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 Medicine Hat’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).
Radon about average around Medicine Hat: 4.4% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Palliser Health Region: radon tests
4.4% of tested homes around Medicine Hat were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Medicine Hat, 4.4% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³, under the median in Alberta (7.5%); 2.2% were over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Medicine Hat; 63% 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.
The survey sampled homes around Medicine Hat; 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 Medicine Hat
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Medicine Hat; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Medicine Hat, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Medicine Hat’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medicine Hat | Low | $0.007 | 4.4% | Yes |
| Cypress County 7,855 · 4.8 km | Low | $0.006 | 4.4% | Yes |
| Redcliff 5,916 · 10.0 km | Low | $0.006 | 4.4% | Yes |
The fire record around Redcliff is a touch heavier than Medicine Hat’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Medicine Hat faces
What to do about the hazards Medicine Hat 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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Medicine Hat is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Medicine Hat’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Medicine Hat’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Medicine Hat.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Medicine Hat
How big is the earthquake risk in Medicine Hat?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Medicine Hat’s buildings lose $0.007 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Medicine Hat flood?
There is flood mapping for Medicine Hat on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Medicine Hat’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Medicine Hat’s Hazard risk grade is A+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Medicine Hat?
Around Medicine Hat, 91 survey homes were tested and 4.4% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Medicine Hat at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.2% of the land around Medicine Hat since 1986 (last in 2018); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
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).