Photo: Nathan Schneider, aka Schnits at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0A flood study covers Penhold: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Government of Alberta
Fire has left almost no mark near Penhold: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.023 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Penhold, near the typical $0.030. Radon is about average around Penhold: 7.5% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Penhold a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Penhold’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Penhold: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Penhold faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Penhold: B+
The grade weighs Penhold’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: #269 of 474 in Alberta and #1,069 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.
Little of the land around Penhold has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Penhold’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Penhold is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest fuel is scarce around Penhold: 0% of the land within 5 km, 1% 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
Wainwright has the highest burn rate in Alberta, 1.43% a year; around Penhold, as around 386 of the 478 towns, it rounds to zero.
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 Penhold 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 Penhold (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Penhold, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2025 study by Government of Alberta covers Penhold, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Deer River Flood Study | Government of Alberta | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Alberta, 46% of towns against 58% nationally, but Penhold has one.
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 Penhold’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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Penhold $0.023 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 $0.023 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Penhold is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.023, Penhold is above the typical town in Alberta ($0.013); Black Diamond has the most 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 Penhold.
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 Penhold’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).
7.5% of homes tested around Penhold are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Penhold’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
Radon around Penhold is ordinary for towns in Alberta: 7.5%, beside a median of 7.5%.
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 Penhold 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 Penhold as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the David Thompson Regional Health Authority
Weather and fire alerts for Penhold
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Penhold; 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 Penhold, 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 Penhold
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penhold | Low | $0.023 | 7.5% | Yes |
| Red Deer County 22,076 · 4.5 km | Low | $0.015 | 7.5% | Yes |
| Innisfail 8,736 · 14 km | Low | $0.014 | 7.5% | None listed |
| Red Deer 115,409 · 16 km | Low | $0.017 | 7.5% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Penhold has the most fire on record (low); Red Deer County follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Penhold faces
What to do about the hazards Penhold 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. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Penhold’s.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Penhold until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Penhold’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Penhold without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Penhold
Is radon a problem in Penhold?
Around Penhold, 107 survey homes were tested and 7.5% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Penhold at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Penhold (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How is Penhold’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Penhold’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Penhold?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Penhold.
Does Penhold flood?
A flood study covers Penhold on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
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).