Photo: Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Hope: 3 on record, latest by Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship
Wildfire is rare near Hope: 1.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.03% a year. Shaking is a bigger worry than in most places, at $0.078 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 3% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Hope a grade of B+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Hope’s hazards
For Hope, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Hope faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hope grades B+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Hope’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #19 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,365 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Hope has burned: 2.6% within 5 km, 1.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Hope’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Hope burns at 0.03% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Within 5 km of Hope, 72% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 77%.
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 upper half in British Columbia but far from Oliver (0.98%): Hope ranks 83rd of 255, at 0.03% a year.
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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Hope reads low, with 92% of them; only 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.
Hope is on the flood map inventory: 3 studies, latest by Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship
Flood studies whose area touches Hope, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Hope the inventory points to 3 studies, most recently Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship’s in 2025.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Fraser and Coquihalla Rivers | Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship | 2025 | final |
| Fraser River near Hope Floodplain Mapping (including Silverhope Creek) | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1987 | final |
| Coquihalla River at Hope Floodplain Mapping | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1985 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
76% of towns in British Columbia have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Hope has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Studies touching Hope run from the 1980s to the 2020s, with the most in the 1980s: 2 of 3.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Hope.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Hope’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 Hope $0.078 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.
Hope’s $0.078 is about 2.6 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
Earthquake risk in British Columbia peaks in Duncan ($1.33); Hope, at $0.078, 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 28% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Hope.
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).
For Hope the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Hope: 3% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Hope’s area has fewer, 3%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Fraser East health region, Hope included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Hope (3%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (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: Hope 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Hope’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Hope
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Hope; 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. |
For fires near Hope, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Hope faces
Practical steps for Hope’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.
- 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Hope.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Hope is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Hope’s included.
- 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 Hope.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Hope
Does Hope flood?
There is flood mapping for Hope on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Hope’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hope’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Hope?
Expected earthquake damage in Hope comes to $0.078 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Hope at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Hope’s band is low, with 1.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Hope?
3% of the 100 homes Health Canada tested around Hope topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).