Photo: Voldeg and Bolton · Public domainFew places are as safe from hazards as Redcliff: it beats 98% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is rare near Redcliff: 0.3% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.007% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.006 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon around Redcliff is ordinary for Canada: 4.4% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Redcliff grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Redcliff’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Redcliff: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Redcliff faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Redcliff: A+
The grade weighs Redcliff’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: #204 of 474 in Alberta and #219 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.
Wildfire is rare near Redcliff: 0.3% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Redcliff’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Redcliff burns at 0.007% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Forest fuel is scarce around Redcliff: 0% of the land within 5 km, 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 478
In the top quarter in Alberta: Redcliff ranks 63rd of 478 at 0.007% a year, with Wainwright first 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.
Some fire is mapped around Redcliff, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
Redcliff is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Government of Alberta
Flood studies whose area touches Redcliff, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Redcliff 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
Its flood study sets Redcliff apart in Alberta, where 46% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Redcliff.
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 Redcliff: $0.006 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
0.2 times the typical $0.030: Redcliff’s $0.006 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Alberta peaks in Black Diamond ($0.048); Redcliff, at $0.006, is below the median of $0.013.
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 Redcliff.
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 Redcliff’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).
4.4% of homes tested around Redcliff are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Near the middle for radon: Redcliff’s area 4.4%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Redcliff, 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.
Redcliff is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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 Redcliff 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). · Radon tests published for the Palliser Health Region, not by town
Weather and fire alerts for Redcliff
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Redcliff; 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 Redcliff, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Redcliff’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redcliff | Low | $0.006 | 4.4% | Yes |
| Medicine Hat 68,714 · 10.0 km | Low | $0.007 | 4.4% | Yes |
| Cypress County 7,855 · 12 km | Low | $0.006 | 4.4% | Yes |
Nowhere around Redcliff burns more: Cypress County, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Redcliff faces
What to do about the hazards Redcliff 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
- 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 Redcliff.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Redcliff’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Redcliff is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Redcliff’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Redcliff
How is Redcliff’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Redcliff’s Hazard risk grade is A+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Redcliff at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.3% of the land around Redcliff since 1986 (last in 2018); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Redcliff?
Around Redcliff, 91 survey homes were tested and 4.4% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Redcliff flood?
There is flood mapping for Redcliff on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Redcliff?
About $0.006 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Redcliff.
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).