Earthquakes are Skowkale’s biggest hazard: $0.25 of damage a year per $1,000 of buildings, 8 times the norm
Burn scars are few around Skowkale, with 0.4% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.01% a year). In Health Canada’s survey, just 3% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Skowkale grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Skowkale’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Skowkale: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Skowkale faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Skowkale: C+
Two inputs always count for Skowkale, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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.
Wildfire is rare near Skowkale: 0.4% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Skowkale’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.01% of the land a year, Skowkale’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Skowkale’s homes came within 9.2 km, never inside 5 km.
The nearer ring around Skowkale is less wooded (9.2% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (58%).
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 256
Skowkale sits mid-table in British Columbia: 99th of 256 towns, at 0.01% a year, well 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.
Some fire is mapped around Skowkale, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 7.5% rank higher.
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 Skowkale
Flood studies whose area touches Skowkale, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Skowkale on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Skowkale 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Skowkale’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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Skowkale $0.25 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.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Skowkale loses $0.25, 8.5 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.25, Skowkale is below the typical town in British Columbia ($0.36); Duncan is highest at $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.
Skowkale is in the top tenth of Canada’s 2,611 towns for earthquake risk; 6.2% rank 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Skowkale’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).
Little radon around Skowkale: 3% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Fraser East health region
Skowkale’s area, at 3%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Skowkale than in most towns in British Columbia: 3% against 1.8%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Skowkale is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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.
The survey sampled homes around Skowkale; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Skowkale
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Skowkale; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Skowkale, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Skowkale
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skowkale | Low | $0.25 | 3% | None listed |
| Chilliwack 105,520 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.31 | 3% | Yes |
| Tzeachten 13 4,899 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.28 | 3% | Yes |
| Electoral Area E, Fraser Valley 1,748 · 10 km | Low | $0.19 | 3% | Yes |
| Cultus Lake 2,773 · 13 km | Low | $0.28 | 3% | Yes |
| Electoral Area C, Fraser Valley 1,155 · 14 km | Low | $0.082 | 3% | Yes |
| Rosedale 2,401 · 14 km | Low | $0.10 | 3% | Yes |
The fire record around Electoral Area C, Fraser Valley is a touch heavier than Skowkale’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Skowkale faces
What to do about the hazards Skowkale faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
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 Skowkale’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Skowkale’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Skowkale.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Skowkale is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Skowkale
Is Skowkale at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.4% of the land around Skowkale since 1986 (last in 2023); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Skowkale’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Skowkale C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Skowkale?
Expected earthquake damage in Skowkale comes to $0.25 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Skowkale?
Around Skowkale, 100 survey homes were tested and 3% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Skowkale flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Skowkale’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
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).