Photo: Dllu · CC BY-SA 4.0Earthquake risk in Abbotsford runs 15 times the typical Canadian town’s: $0.46 per $1,000 a year
Burn scars are few around Abbotsford, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.006% a year). Radon is lower than usual: 3% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Abbotsford a grade of C+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Abbotsford’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Abbotsford: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Abbotsford faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Abbotsford: C+
Seismic risk and radon set Abbotsford’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #211 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,859 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 Abbotsford: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Past fire around Abbotsford’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.006% of the land a year, Abbotsford’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Within 5 km of Abbotsford, 11% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 40%.
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 British Columbia · highest of 255
Abbotsford sits mid-table in British Columbia: 115th of 255 towns, at 0.006% a year, well behind Oliver (0.98%).
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 Abbotsford, 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.
Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship has mapped flooding for Abbotsford (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Abbotsford: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship holds the flood mapping that covers Abbotsford (2025), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Fraser and Coquihalla Rivers | Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in British Columbia: 76% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Abbotsford is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Abbotsford to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.
Shaking is Abbotsford’s costliest hazard: $0.46 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Abbotsford’s $0.46 is about 15.4 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in British Columbia: Abbotsford’s $0.46 against a median of $0.36, with Duncan highest at $1.33.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Only 2.8% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Abbotsford.
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 Abbotsford’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).
Radon runs low around Abbotsford: 3% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Abbotsford’s area, at 3%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Abbotsford than in most towns in British Columbia: 3% against 1.8%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Abbotsford shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 Abbotsford only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Fraser East health region)
Weather and fire alerts for Abbotsford
Alerts for Abbotsford 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. |
Evacuation orders for Abbotsford come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Abbotsford’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abbotsford | Low | $0.46 | 3% | Yes |
| Mission 47,280 · 11 km | Low | $0.36 | 3% | Yes |
| Electoral Area G, Fraser Valley 1,808 · 14 km | Low | $0.38 | 3% | Yes |
The fire record around Electoral Area G, Fraser Valley is a touch heavier than Abbotsford’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 Abbotsford faces
Practical steps for Abbotsford’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Abbotsford’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Abbotsford is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Abbotsford’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Abbotsford.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Abbotsford
Is Abbotsford at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Abbotsford’s band is low, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2023), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Abbotsford flood?
There is flood mapping for Abbotsford on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Abbotsford?
3% of the 100 homes Health Canada tested around Abbotsford topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Abbotsford’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Abbotsford grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Abbotsford?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Abbotsford $0.46 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).