Photo: William Matheson · CC BY-SA 2.0Hazard risk in Houston is lower than in 88% of Canadian towns
The burn rate around Houston is 0.08% a year (3% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.013 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Houston’s survey area, 5.2% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Houston grades A for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Houston’s hazards
For Houston, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Houston faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Houston grades A for hazard risk
For Houston, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #5 of 254 in British Columbia and #506 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.
Some fire around Houston: 3% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Houston’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.08% of the land a year, Houston’s burn rate is moderate; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Houston’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 6.2 km away.
The nearer ring around Houston is less wooded (52% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (75%).
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: Houston ranks 60th 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 Houston, 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.
3 flood studies cover Houston, the newest from Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Houston: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
3 studies on the inventory touch Houston, the newest Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship’s from 2024, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Floodplain Mapping in BC - Bulkley and Skeena River – Summary Report and Lakelse Lake and River – Summary Report | Province of B.C. - Water, Lands, and Resource Stewardship | 2024 | final |
| Bulkley River (Quick to Houston) Floodplain Mapping (including Morice River) | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1998 | final |
| Bulkley River at Houston Floodplain Mapping (including Buck Creek) | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1985 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, Houston 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: 3 studies for Houston between the 1980s and the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Houston.
Flood mapping is shown for Houston 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.
Low seismic risk in Houston: $0.013 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.013 per $1,000, Houston carries 0.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in British Columbia: Houston’s $0.013 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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 75% of its 2,611 towns sit above Houston.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Houston is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
5.2% of homes tested around Houston are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Northwest health region: radon tests
Houston’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 5.2% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Houston than in most towns in British Columbia: 5.2% over the guideline (1.8% is typical), 1.4% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Houston, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are higher.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Houston, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Houston
Alerts for Houston 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Houston to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Houston faces
Practical steps for Houston’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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Houston, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Houston without grading them.
- 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 Houston until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Houston’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Houston
Does Houston flood?
A flood study covers Houston on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Houston at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Houston’s band is moderate, with 3% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2023), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Houston?
5.2% of the 211 homes Health Canada tested around Houston topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Houston’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Houston’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Houston?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Houston’s buildings lose $0.013 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).