Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainHazard risk in Electoral Area B, North Okanagan is higher than in 97% of Canadian towns
Wildfire is a real hazard for Electoral Area B, North Okanagan: 17% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.42% a year, in the high band. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.012 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, 17% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Electoral Area B, North Okanagan a grade of D−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s hazards
For Electoral Area B, North Okanagan, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Electoral Area B, North Okanagan faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Electoral Area B, North Okanagan: D−
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Electoral Area B, North Okanagan with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #238 of 254 in British Columbia and #2,559 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.
A high wildfire band for Electoral Area B, North Okanagan: 24% within 5 km, 17% within 25 km
Past fire around Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.42% of the land a year, Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s burn rate is high, many times the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Electoral Area B, North Okanagan: 31% of the land within 5 km, 56% 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
The land around Electoral Area B, North Okanagan burns at 0.42% a year, the 16th highest rate of 255 towns in British Columbia; Oliver tops it 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.
Just 1.9% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough for the high band where Electoral Area B, North Okanagan sits; 0.2% burn faster.
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.
Electoral Area B, North Okanagan is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Okanagan Basin Water Board
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Electoral Area B, North Okanagan: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Electoral Area B, North Okanagan, Okanagan Basin Water Board’s from 2020, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Okanagan Mainstem Floodplain Mapping Project | Okanagan Basin Water Board | 2020 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Electoral Area B, North Okanagan is one of the 76% of towns in British Columbia with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s 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.
Low seismic risk in Electoral Area B, North Okanagan: $0.012 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.4 times the typical $0.030: Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s $0.012 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in British Columbia: Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s $0.012 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: 84% of its 2,611 towns sit above Electoral Area B, North Okanagan.
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 Electoral Area B, North Okanagan.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Electoral Area B, North Okanagan: 17% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Okanagan health region: radon tests
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s area, at 17%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Electoral Area B, North Okanagan than in most towns in British Columbia: 17% over the guideline (1.8% is typical), 2.8% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Electoral Area B, North Okanagan is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% 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.
Whatever Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Electoral Area B, North Okanagan
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Electoral Area B, North Okanagan; 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 Electoral Area B, North Okanagan 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 Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electoral Area B, North Okanagan | High | $0.012 | 17% | Yes |
| Electoral Area C, North Okanagan 5,029 · 2.6 km | Moderate | $0.010 | 17% | None listed |
| Vernon 49,527 · 5.6 km | High | $0.014 | 17% | Yes |
| Coldstream 11,380 · 8.7 km | High | $0.013 | 17% | Yes |
| Okanagan (Part) 1 3,482 · 11 km | High | $0.011 | 17% | Yes |
| Spallumcheen 5,843 · 12 km | Moderate | $0.016 | 17% | Yes |
| Armstrong 5,643 · 16 km | Moderate | $0.020 | 17% | Yes |
Okanagan (Part) 1 burns a little more than Electoral Area B, North Okanagan, in the same high band (high here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Electoral Area B, North Okanagan faces
What to do about the hazards Electoral Area B, North Okanagan 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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Electoral Area B, North Okanagan, 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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Electoral Area B, North Okanagan takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Electoral Area B, North Okanagan.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Electoral Area B, North Okanagan
Is Electoral Area B, North Okanagan at risk of wildfire?
More than most Canadian towns; Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s high band rests on 17% of nearby land burned since 1986 (most recently 2025).
How is Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Electoral Area B, North Okanagan D−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Electoral Area B, North Okanagan?
Around Electoral Area B, North Okanagan, 109 survey homes were tested and 17% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Electoral Area B, North Okanagan?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Electoral Area B, North Okanagan’s buildings lose $0.012 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Electoral Area B, North Okanagan flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Electoral Area B, North Okanagan; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the 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).