Earthquake risk in Clayton Heights runs 16 times the typical Canadian town’s: $0.47 per $1,000 a year
Little of the land around Clayton Heights has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.002% a year. In Health Canada’s survey, just 0% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Clayton Heights a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Clayton Heights’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Clayton Heights: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Clayton Heights faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Clayton Heights grades B for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Clayton Heights, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #59 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,520 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 70 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.
Little of the land around Clayton Heights has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Clayton Heights’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.002% of the land near Clayton Heights burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
The 5 km ring around Clayton Heights’ homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 18 km out.
Forest fuel rises from 0.9% within 5 km of Clayton Heights to 21% within 25 km: the fuel lies away from homes.
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
Some fire is mapped around Clayton Heights (0.002% a year), but it ranks only 230th of 255 towns in British Columbia; Oliver has 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 Clayton Heights, 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.
A flood study covers Clayton Heights, from City of Surrey: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Clayton Heights: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Clayton Heights, City of Surrey’s from 2015, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serpentine & Nicomekl River Climate Change Floodplain Review Phase 2 | City of Surrey | 2015 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Clayton Heights 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Clayton Heights.
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.
Shaking is Clayton Heights’ costliest hazard: $0.47 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
The typical town loses $0.030 a year to shaking; Clayton Heights loses $0.47, 15.7 times as much.
Clayton Heights shares its earthquake risk numbers with the rest of the city of Surrey.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in British Columbia: Clayton Heights’ $0.47 against a median of $0.36, with Duncan 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.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns face more earthquake damage than Clayton Heights: 1.6% 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 Clayton Heights’ 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 Clayton Heights: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Fewer homes than usual test high around Clayton Heights: 0% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. Clayton Heights doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Fraser South health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Clayton Heights’ area, at 0%, is below the median in British Columbia (1.8%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Clayton Heights, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see 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.
One home in Clayton Heights 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 Clayton Heights
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Clayton Heights; 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 Clayton Heights 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 Clayton Heights’ neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clayton Heights | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Aloha Estates 13,194 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | None listed |
| Rosewood Park 9,004 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Provinceton 11,625 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Cloverdale 13,615 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Sunrise Estates 4,292 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Langley 35,444 · 4.6 km | Low | $0.54 | 0% | Yes |
Provinceton burns a little more than Clayton Heights, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Clayton Heights faces
What to do about the hazards Clayton Heights 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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Clayton Heights is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Clayton Heights.
- 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 Clayton Heights’.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Clayton Heights’ 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 Clayton Heights
How big is the earthquake risk in Clayton Heights?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Clayton Heights $0.47 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Clayton Heights?
Around Clayton Heights, 70 survey homes were tested and 0% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Clayton Heights at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Clayton Heights since 1986 (last in 2022); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Clayton Heights flood?
There is flood mapping for Clayton Heights on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Clayton Heights’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Clayton Heights’ Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).