Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainRadon is Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s main hazard: 17% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
Some 9% of the land within 25 km of Electoral Area C, North Okanagan has burned since 1986; at 0.23% a year that is moderate, not high. Seismic risk runs low: $0.010 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Electoral Area C, North Okanagan grades B− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Electoral Area C, North Okanagan: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Electoral Area C, 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 C, North Okanagan: B−
The grade weighs Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #115 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,626 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Fire reaches the land around Electoral Area C, North Okanagan: 0.2% within 5 km, 9% within 25 km
Past fire around Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Moderate: the land around Electoral Area C, North Okanagan burns at 0.23% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
There is forest near Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s homes (50% within 5 km) and more of it further out (58% 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
In the top quarter in British Columbia: Electoral Area C, North Okanagan ranks 29th of 255 at 0.23% 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.
Moderate puts Electoral Area C, North Okanagan above most of Canada’s 2,610 towns, yet 2.1% rank high or very high and 5.4% share its band.
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.
No flood study is listed for Electoral Area C, North Okanagan
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Electoral Area C, North Okanagan: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
There is no study for Electoral Area C, North Okanagan on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Electoral Area C, North Okanagan has no study, where 76% of towns in British Columbia have one against 58% nationally.
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 Electoral Area C, North Okanagan.
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.”
Low seismic risk in Electoral Area C, North Okanagan: $0.010 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s $0.010 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.3 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in British Columbia peaks in Duncan ($1.33); Electoral Area C, North Okanagan, at $0.010, 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.
Earthquakes cost less around Electoral Area C, North Okanagan than in 86% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in Electoral Area C, North Okanagan: 17% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s survey area reads 17% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s area, at 17%, is above the median in British Columbia (1.8%), and 2.8% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Electoral Area C, North Okanagan sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Electoral Area C, North Okanagan only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Okanagan health region
Weather and fire alerts for Electoral Area C, North Okanagan
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Electoral Area C, 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. |
For fires near Electoral Area C, North Okanagan, 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)
Hazards in the places around Electoral Area C, North Okanagan
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electoral Area C, North Okanagan | Moderate | $0.010 | 17% | None listed |
| Electoral Area B, North Okanagan 3,415 · 2.6 km | High | $0.012 | 17% | Yes |
| Vernon 49,527 · 5.2 km | High | $0.014 | 17% | Yes |
| Coldstream 11,380 · 6.5 km | High | $0.013 | 17% | Yes |
| Okanagan (Part) 1 3,482 · 13 km | High | $0.011 | 17% | Yes |
| Spallumcheen 5,843 · 14 km | Moderate | $0.016 | 17% | Yes |
| Armstrong 5,643 · 17 km | Moderate | $0.020 | 17% | Yes |
Okanagan (Part) 1 has the most fire around it, a high band against Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s moderate.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Electoral Area C, North Okanagan faces
What to do about the hazards Electoral Area C, 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s.
- 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 C, North Okanagan.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Electoral Area C, North Okanagan takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Electoral Area C, North Okanagan
Does Electoral Area C, North Okanagan flood?
Nothing is listed for Electoral Area C, North Okanagan on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Electoral Area C, North Okanagan at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 9% of the land within 25 km of Electoral Area C, North Okanagan has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a moderate band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Electoral Area C, North Okanagan?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Electoral Area C, North Okanagan $0.010 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Electoral Area C, North Okanagan B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Electoral Area C, North Okanagan?
In Health Canada’s survey, 17% of 109 homes tested in Electoral Area C, North Okanagan’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).