Photo: Kiyoteru Awaji · CC BY 4.0Flood mapping exists for Kamloops: 4 on record, latest by Fraser Basin Council
Wildfire is a moderate presence around Kamloops: 8.7% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.22% a year, short of the band that counts against Risk. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.015 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. About as many homes carry radon around Kamloops as elsewhere, 6.4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Kamloops grades A− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Kamloops’s hazards
For Kamloops, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Kamloops faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Kamloops grades A− for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Kamloops with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #8 of 254 in British Columbia and #586 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.
A moderate wildfire record for Kamloops: 8.7% within 25 km burned, 11% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Kamloops’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Moderate: the land around Kamloops burns at 0.22% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest fuel covers 13% of the land close to Kamloops and 51% across 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 0.22% a year, Kamloops is near the top in British Columbia: 31st of 255, 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.
Only 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns share the moderate band with Kamloops, 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.
4 flood studies cover Kamloops, the newest from Fraser Basin Council
Flood studies whose area touches Kamloops, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Kamloops the inventory points to 4 studies, most recently Fraser Basin Council’s in 2020.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thompson River Watershed Base Level Flood Hazard Mapping | Fraser Basin Council | 2020 | final |
| Kamloops | City of Kamloops | 2005 | final |
| North Thompson River (Kamloops to Vavenby) Floodplain Mapping (including Barriere and Clearwater Rivers) | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1982 | final |
| South Thompson River (Kamloops to Chase) Floodplain Mapping | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1976 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in British Columbia: 76% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Kamloops is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The 4 studies touching Kamloops are spread over time, from the 1970s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Kamloops.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Kamloops’ homes are at risk.
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 Kamloops just $0.015 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.
0.5 times the typical $0.030: Kamloops’ $0.015 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in British Columbia: Kamloops’ $0.015 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.
Kamloops is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 72% 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Kamloops 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).
6.4% of homes tested around Kamloops are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 6.4% over the guideline, the area around Kamloops is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Kamloops doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Thompson/Cariboo health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in British Columbia is 1.8% over 200 Bq/m³; the survey area around Kamloops has 6.4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Kamloops with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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.
A low area share in Kamloops doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Kamloops
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Kamloops; 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 Kamloops come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Kamloops’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kamloops | Moderate | $0.015 | 6.4% | Yes |
| Kamloops 1 4,362 · 4.6 km | High | $0.009 | 6.4% | Yes |
Next door, Kamloops 1 sits in a high fire band; Kamloops is moderate.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Kamloops faces
What to do about the hazards Kamloops faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Kamloops’ 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 Kamloops floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Kamloops, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Kamloops sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kamloops
Is Kamloops at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 8.7% of the land around Kamloops since 1986 (last in 2025); at moderate, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Kamloops’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Kamloops’ Hazard risk grade is A−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Kamloops flood?
Kamloops’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How big is the earthquake risk in Kamloops?
Expected earthquake damage in Kamloops comes to $0.015 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Kamloops?
Around Kamloops, 109 survey homes were tested and 6.4% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).