Photo: HS01 · CC BY-SA 4.0High radon around Dufferin: 43% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Burn scars are few around Dufferin, with 0% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.000% a year). Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.005 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Dufferin a grade of B−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Dufferin’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Dufferin: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Dufferin faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Dufferin: B−
Two inputs always count for Dufferin, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #158 of 185 in Manitoba and #1,651 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Dufferin has burned: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Dufferin’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Dufferin burns at 0.000% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest makes up 0% of the land within 5 km of Dufferin and 0% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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 Manitoba · highest of 189
Flin Flon (Part) has the highest burn rate in Manitoba, 1.68% a year; around Dufferin, as around 60 of the 189 towns, it rounds to zero.
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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Dufferin, burning rounds to zero.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Dufferin
Flood studies whose area touches Dufferin, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Dufferin, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 18% of towns in Manitoba have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Dufferin is not among them.
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 Dufferin.
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 Dufferin just $0.005 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.
Dufferin’s $0.005 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.2 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Dufferin at $0.005 beside a median in Manitoba of $0.006, with Virden on top at $0.007.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Dufferin is among Canada’s quietest towns for earthquakes: 96% of the 2,611 expect more damage.
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 Dufferin’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).
Test for radon in Dufferin: 43% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 43% over the guideline, the area around Dufferin beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Dufferin alone, so this card uses the figure for the Central health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Dufferin’s area, at 43%, is above the median in Manitoba (12%), and 7.4% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
At least three tests in ten top the guideline around Dufferin, a level reached by 1.5% of Canada’s towns.
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 Dufferin 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 Dufferin
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Dufferin; 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. |
For fires near Dufferin, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Dufferin’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Dufferin (low); Carman comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Dufferin faces
What to do about the hazards Dufferin 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.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- 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 Dufferin’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Dufferin without grading them.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Dufferin until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Dufferin’s 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 Dufferin
Does Dufferin flood?
Nothing is listed for Dufferin on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is Dufferin at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Dufferin has burned since 1986, the last in 2003, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Is radon a problem in Dufferin?
In Health Canada’s survey, 43% of 108 homes tested in Dufferin’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Dufferin?
Expected earthquake damage in Dufferin comes to $0.005 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Dufferin’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Dufferin grades B− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers 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).