Photo: Tracklan2 · CC0Hazards in Picture Butte: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 8.9% of tested homes
Little of the land around Picture Butte has burned: 0.9% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.02% a year. For earthquakes Picture Butte is middling, $0.023 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Picture Butte a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Picture Butte’s hazards
For Picture Butte, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Picture Butte faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Picture Butte grades B for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Picture Butte with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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 Picture Butte has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.9% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Picture Butte’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Picture Butte burns at 0.02% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Picture Butte’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 19 km off.
Little near Picture Butte’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0.1% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 0% 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 479
Picture Butte ranks 48th of the 479 towns in Alberta for burn rate, at 0.02% 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.
Picture Butte 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.
No flood study is listed for Picture Butte
Flood studies whose area touches Picture Butte, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Nationally, Picture Butte 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 Picture Butte.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Picture Butte floods.
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.”
Expected shaking damage in Picture Butte: $0.023 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.
Picture Butte’s $0.023 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.8 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.023, Picture Butte 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 Picture Butte.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Picture Butte.
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 Picture Butte: 8.9% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Chinook Regional Health Authority
Picture Butte’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.9% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Ordinary for towns in Alberta at 8.9% over 200 Bq/m³ (7.5% is the median), the area around Picture Butte had 0.9% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Picture Butte’s 5–10% 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.
Neighbouring homes in Picture Butte can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Picture Butte
Alerts for Picture Butte 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Picture Butte are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Picture Butte
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Picture Butte | Low | $0.023 | 8.9% | None listed |
| Lethbridge County 10,988 · 3.8 km | Low | $0.024 | 8.9% | Yes |
| Coalhurst 3,244 · 18 km | Moderate | $0.029 | 8.9% | None listed |
Next door, Coalhurst sits in a moderate fire band; Picture Butte is low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Picture Butte faces
What to do about the hazards Picture Butte 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?
- 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. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Picture Butte.
- 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 Picture Butte.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Picture Butte’s included.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Picture Butte is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Picture Butte
How is Picture Butte’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Picture Butte B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Picture Butte at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.9% of the land around Picture Butte since 1986 (last in 2012); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Picture Butte?
Around Picture Butte, 112 survey homes were tested and 8.9% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Picture Butte?
About $0.023 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Picture Butte.
Does Picture Butte flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Picture Butte’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
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).