Photo: Vxceprex · CC BY-SA 3.0High radon around Grand Forks: 29% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Little of the land around Grand Forks has burned: 0.9% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.03% a year. NRCan expects $0.028 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Grand Forks, near the typical $0.030. Grand Forks grades C− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Grand Forks’s hazards
For Grand Forks, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Grand Forks faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Grand Forks grades C− for hazard risk
For Grand Forks, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #224 of 254 in British Columbia and #2,393 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Grand Forks: 0% within 5 km, 0.9% within 25 km
Past fire around Grand Forks’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Grand Forks burns at 0.03% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
The 5 km ring around Grand Forks’ homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 6.8 km out.
Forest thickens with distance from Grand Forks: 25% of the land within 5 km, 65% 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
At 0.03% a year, Grand Forks ranks 83rd of the 255 towns in British Columbia; Oliver leads 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Grand Forks burns, but slower than in the 7.5% 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.
A flood study covers Grand Forks, from Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Grand Forks: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Grand Forks is Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy’s, dated 1992; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kettle and Granby Rivers at Grand Forks Floodplain Mapping | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1992 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, Grand Forks 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Grand Forks.
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 Grand Forks $0.028 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Earthquake losses in Grand Forks, $0.028 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (0.9 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in British Columbia: Grand Forks’ $0.028 against a median of $0.36; Duncan has $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.
Grand Forks’ earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 51% 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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Grand Forks.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
29% of homes tested around Grand Forks are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Grand Forks’ area, at 29%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places. Figures for radon tests are published for the Kootenay/Boundary health region as a whole, not for Grand Forks alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Grand Forks (29%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%); 7.3% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns (3.1%) share the 20–30% band with Grand Forks, and 1.5% sit above it.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Grand Forks’ included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Grand Forks
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Grand Forks; 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 Grand Forks, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Grand Forks’ neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Forks | Low | $0.028 | 29% | Yes |
| Electoral Area D (Rural Grand Forks), Kootenay Boundary 3,570 · 2.7 km | Moderate | $0.011 | 29% | Yes |
| Electoral Area C (Christina Lake), Kootenay Boundary 1,666 · 18 km | Low | $0.010 | 29% | Yes |
Next door, Electoral Area D (Rural Grand Forks), Kootenay Boundary sits in a moderate fire band; Grand Forks is low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Grand Forks faces
Practical steps for Grand Forks’ 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.
- 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
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Grand Forks sits in.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Grand Forks, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Grand Forks’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Grand Forks floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Grand Forks
How is Grand Forks’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Grand Forks’ Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Grand Forks?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Grand Forks’ buildings lose $0.028 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Grand Forks?
29% of the 109 homes Health Canada tested around Grand Forks topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Grand Forks flood?
Grand Forks’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is Grand Forks at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Grand Forks’ band is low, with 0.9% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
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).