Photo: Kiyoteru Awaji · CC BY 4.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Clearwater: it beats 89% of Canadian towns
The burn rate around Clearwater is 0.08% a year (3.1% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.009 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. About as many homes carry radon around Clearwater as elsewhere, 6.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Clearwater a grade of A; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Clearwater’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Clearwater: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Clearwater faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Clearwater grades A for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Clearwater’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #4 of 254 in British Columbia and #474 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.
A moderate wildfire record for Clearwater: 3.1% within 25 km burned, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Clearwater’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Moderate: the land around Clearwater burns at 0.08% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Clearwater’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 5.3 km away.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Clearwater: 78% within 5 km, 80% 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 British Columbia · highest of 255
In the top quarter in British Columbia: Clearwater ranks 58th of 255 at 0.08% a year, with Oliver first at 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.
Only 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns share the moderate band with Clearwater, and 2.1% sit 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.
2 flood studies cover Clearwater, the newest from Fraser Basin Council
Flood studies whose area touches Clearwater, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Fraser Basin Council and others have studied flooding in areas that include Clearwater: 2 studies, the latest from 2020.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thompson River Watershed Base Level Flood Hazard Mapping | Fraser Basin Council | 2020 | final |
| North Thompson River (Kamloops to Vavenby) Floodplain Mapping (including Barriere and Clearwater Rivers) | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1982 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, Clearwater included, beside 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
No single decade dominates: 2 studies for Clearwater between the 1980s and the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Clearwater.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Clearwater’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Clearwater just $0.009 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.
At $0.009 per $1,000, Clearwater carries 0.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in British Columbia peaks in Duncan ($1.33); Clearwater, at $0.009, is below the median of $0.36.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Earthquakes cost less around Clearwater than in 86% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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 Clearwater’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).
Radon about average around Clearwater: 6.4% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Thompson/Cariboo health region
6.4% of tested homes around Clearwater were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Clearwater than in most towns in British Columbia: 6.4% against 1.8%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Clearwater, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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.
One home in Clearwater can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Clearwater
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Clearwater; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Clearwater come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Clearwater
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearwater | Moderate | $0.009 | 6.4% | Yes |
| Electoral Area A (Wells Gray Country), Thompson-Nicola 1,766 · 12 km | Moderate | $0.009 | 6.4% | Yes |
The fire record around Electoral Area A (Wells Gray Country), Thompson-Nicola is a touch heavier than Clearwater’s, but the band is the same: moderate (here moderate).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Clearwater faces
Practical steps for Clearwater’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- 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 Clearwater until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Clearwater without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Clearwater’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Clearwater’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Clearwater
Does Clearwater flood?
A flood study covers Clearwater on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is radon a problem in Clearwater?
6.4% of the 109 homes Health Canada tested around Clearwater topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Clearwater at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Clearwater’s band is moderate, with 3.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2024), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Clearwater’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Clearwater A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Clearwater?
Expected earthquake damage in Clearwater comes to $0.009 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).