Photo: Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Hazard risk in Oliver is higher than in almost every Canadian town
With 0.98% of the land around it burning each year, Oliver sits in the high wildfire band (37% within 25 km since 1986). Earthquake risk in Oliver is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.028 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 17% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Oliver a grade of D−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Oliver’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Oliver: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Oliver faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Oliver: D−
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Oliver with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #2,583 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.
A high wildfire band for Oliver: 25% within 5 km, 37% within 25 km
Past fire around Oliver’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
High: the land around Oliver burns at 0.98% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Close to Oliver there is little to burn (1.8% forest fuel within 5 km), but 38% of the land within 25 km is forest.
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
None of the 255 towns in British Columbia burns faster than Oliver (0.98% a year); Osoyoos follows at 0.96%.
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.
Oliver is one of the few of Canada’s 2,610 towns in the high band (1.9%); 0.2% rank very high.
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.
Okanagan Basin Water Board has mapped flooding for Oliver (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Oliver: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Oliver the inventory points to Okanagan Basin Water Board’s 2020 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Okanagan Mainstem Floodplain Mapping Project | Okanagan Basin Water Board | 2020 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in British Columbia reaches 76% of towns, Oliver 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.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Oliver.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Oliver: $0.028 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.9 times the typical $0.030: Oliver’s $0.028 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Oliver’s $0.028 sits under the median in British Columbia, $0.36, and well under Duncan’s $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.
Middle of the pack: 51% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Oliver.
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 Oliver’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).
Radon runs high around Oliver: 17% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Radon tests for the Okanagan health region
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Oliver’s area, at 17%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Oliver (17%) than in the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%); 2.8% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Oliver 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Oliver can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Oliver
Alerts for Oliver 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. |
Evacuation orders for Oliver come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Oliver’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oliver | High | $0.028 | 17% | Yes |
| Electoral Area C, Okanagan-Similkameen 4,103 · 3.6 km | High | $0.021 | 17% | Yes |
| Osoyoos 1 1,484 · 4.4 km | High | $0.022 | 17% | Yes |
| Electoral Area B, Okanagan-Similkameen 1,190 · 13 km | Very high | $0.024 | 17% | Yes |
| Osoyoos 5,724 · 19 km | High | $0.030 | 17% | Yes |
Next door, Electoral Area B, Okanagan-Similkameen sits in a very high fire band; Oliver is high.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Oliver faces
What to do about the hazards Oliver 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. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Oliver’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 Oliver.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Oliver’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Oliver takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Oliver
Is radon a problem in Oliver?
Around Oliver, 109 survey homes were tested and 17% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Oliver flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Oliver; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is Oliver at risk of wildfire?
More than most Canadian towns; Oliver’s high band rests on 37% of nearby land burned since 1986 (most recently 2025).
How big is the earthquake risk in Oliver?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Oliver $0.028 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Oliver’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Oliver D−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).