Photo: awmcphee · CC BY-SA 4.0Swan Hills faces more hazards than 97% of Canadian towns
Fire is a regular visitor: 17% of the land within 25 km of Swan Hills has burned since 1986 (0.43% a year). Seismic risk runs low: $0.007 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. About as many homes carry radon around Swan Hills as elsewhere, 9.6% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Swan Hills grades D− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Swan Hills’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Swan Hills: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Swan Hills faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Swan Hills grades D− for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Swan Hills with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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.
A high wildfire band for Swan Hills: 0.1% within 5 km, 17% within 25 km
Past fire around Swan Hills’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.43% of the land a year, Swan Hills’ burn rate is high, many times the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Forest fuel is denser close to Swan Hills (89% within 5 km) than further out (81% 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
Swan Hills ranks 8th of the 479 towns in Alberta for burn rate, at 0.43% 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.
Swan Hills is one of the few of Canada’s 2,610 towns in the high band (1.9%); 0.2% rank very high.
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 Swan Hills
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Swan Hills: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
An empty entry for Swan Hills on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
No study touches Swan Hills; in Alberta, 46% of towns have one, below Canada’s 58%.
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 Swan Hills’ 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 Swan Hills: $0.007 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.2 times the typical $0.030: Swan Hills’ $0.007 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Alberta: Swan Hills’ $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.
Swan Hills is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 88% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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 model counts damage to Swan Hills’ buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 Swan Hills: 9.6% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Aspen Regional Health Authority
Swan Hills’ area, at 9.6%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Swan Hills (9.6%) than in the typical town in Alberta (7.5%); 0.5% went over 600.
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 Swan Hills 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Swan Hills only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Swan Hills
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Swan Hills; 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 Swan Hills, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Swan Hills faces
What to do about the hazards Swan Hills faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Swan Hills until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Swan Hills without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Swan Hills’ figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Swan Hills’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Swan Hills
Does Swan Hills flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Swan Hills’ flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is Swan Hills at risk of wildfire?
More than most Canadian towns; Swan Hills’ high band rests on 17% of nearby land burned since 1986 (most recently 2025).
Is radon a problem in Swan Hills?
Around Swan Hills, 219 survey homes were tested and 9.6% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Swan Hills?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Swan Hills $0.007 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Swan Hills’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Swan Hills’ Hazard risk grade is D−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).