Photo: Kyle Wilson · CC BY-SA 4.0Shaking costs buildings in Sooke $0.70 a year per $1,000 of value, 23 times the typical town’s
Burn scars are few around Sooke, with 0.5% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.01% a year). Radon is lower than usual: 1.8% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Sooke grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Sooke’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Sooke: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Sooke faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sooke grades C+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Sooke, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #180 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,790 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 55 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Sooke: 0.5% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Sooke’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Around Sooke fire takes 0.01% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
The ring nearest Sooke is the most wooded: 83% forest fuel within 5 km against 78% 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
Sooke sits mid-table in British Columbia: 90th of 255 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Sooke reads low, with 92% of them; only 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.
Sooke is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Capital Regional District
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Sooke: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
2 studies on the inventory touch Sooke, the newest Capital Regional District’s from 2021, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital Regional Coastal Flood Inundation Mapping Project | Capital Regional District | 2021 | final |
| Sooke River Floodplain Mapping (including Charters River) | Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy | 1995 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Sooke 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 2 studies touching Sooke are spread over time, from the 1990s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Sooke.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Sooke floods.
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.
High seismic risk in Sooke: $0.70 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Sooke loses $0.70, 23.2 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in British Columbia expects $0.36 a year; Sooke expects $0.70, and Duncan $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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than Sooke: 0.6% of them.
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).
The model counts damage to Sooke’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs low around Sooke: 1.8% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the South Vancouver Island health region
Sooke’s survey area reads 1.8% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Sooke, 1.8% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in British Columbia (1.8%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
The quietest radon band, under 5%, holds 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns and Sooke; 63% sit 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.
One home in Sooke can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Sooke
Alerts for Sooke 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 Sooke 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 Sooke’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sooke | Low | $0.70 | 1.8% | Yes |
| Juan de Fuca (Part 1) 5,439 · 4.3 km | Low | $0.54 | 1.8% | Yes |
| Metchosin 5,207 · 13 km | Low | $0.56 | 1.8% | Yes |
| Langford 59,664 · 17 km | Low | $0.74 | 1.8% | Yes |
| Colwood 22,794 · 18 km | Low | $1.09 | 1.8% | Yes |
The fire record around Juan de Fuca (Part 1) is a touch heavier than Sooke’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 Sooke faces
What to do about the hazards Sooke 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Sooke.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Sooke is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Sooke’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Sooke’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sooke
How big is the earthquake risk in Sooke?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Sooke $0.70 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Sooke’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Sooke C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Sooke?
Around Sooke, 55 survey homes were tested and 1.8% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Sooke flood?
There is flood mapping for Sooke on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Sooke at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.5% of the land around Sooke since 1986 (last in 2024); at low, it neither helps nor hurts 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).