Photo: Leoboudv · CC BY-SA 3.0Earthquake risk in Surrey runs 16 times the typical Canadian town’s: $0.47 per $1,000 a year
Little of the land around Surrey has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.003% a year. Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town.
What stands out about Surrey’s hazards
For Surrey, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Surrey faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Surrey isn’t graded for hazard risk yet
Seismic risk and radon set Surrey’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Surrey: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Surrey’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.003% of the land a year, Surrey’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Surrey’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 7.6 km off.
Within 5 km of Surrey, 5.3% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 29%.
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
Some fire is mapped around Surrey (0.003% a year), but it ranks only 191st of 256 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Surrey burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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.
Flooding around Surrey is mapped in 3 studies, the newest by City of Langley
Flood studies whose area touches Surrey, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
City of Langley and others have studied flooding in areas that include Surrey: 3 studies, the latest from 2022.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nicomekl River Floodplain Mapping | City of Langley | 2022 | final |
| Coquitlam, Fraser, Pitt Rivers Floodplain Mapping | City of Coquitlam | 2017 | final |
| Serpentine & Nicomekl River Climate Change Floodplain Review Phase 2 | City of Surrey | 2015 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Surrey with 76% of towns in British Columbia; Canada’s share is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The busiest decade for flood studies around Surrey was the 2010s (2 of 3); they run from the 2010s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Surrey.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Surrey.
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 Surrey’s costliest hazard: $0.47 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Roughly 15.7 times the typical $0.030: Surrey’s $0.47 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in British Columbia peaks in Duncan ($1.33); Surrey, at $0.47, sits above 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.
Only 1.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Surrey.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Surrey.
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 Surrey: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Where the typical Canadian town has 6.6% of homes over the guideline, Surrey’s area has fewer, 0%. Surrey shares its radon tests numbers with the rest of the Fraser South health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in British Columbia is 1.8% over 200 Bq/m³; around Surrey it is 0%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Surrey shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Surrey’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Surrey
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Surrey; 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 Surrey, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Surrey’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surrey | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Sullivan 42,135 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Fleetwood 63,957 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Newton 51,222 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Panorama Ridge 36,473 · 3.9 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Surrey Centre 16,482 · 4.6 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
| Johnston Heights 30,971 · 4.9 km | Low | $0.47 | 0% | Yes |
Sullivan burns a little more than Surrey, 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 Surrey faces
Practical steps for Surrey’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Surrey.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Surrey takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Surrey’s included.
- 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 Surrey.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Surrey
Is Surrey at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Surrey’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2022) is short of the level that counts.
Does Surrey flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Surrey; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Surrey?
The area’s survey found 0% of 70 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Surrey.
How is Surrey’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
No letter so far; once Canada is graded, Surrey’s Risk will rest on earthquakes and radon, plus wildfire where it counts against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Surrey?
About $0.47 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Surrey.
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).