Photo: Travel Manitoba · CC BY 2.0High radon around Dunnottar: 25% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Wildfire is a moderate presence around Dunnottar: 5.2% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.18% a year, short of the band that counts against Risk. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.003 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Dunnottar a grade of B+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Dunnottar’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Dunnottar: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Dunnottar faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Dunnottar: B+
Earthquake risk and radon make Dunnottar’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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.
Fire reaches the land around Dunnottar: 0% within 5 km, 5.2% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Dunnottar’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Moderate: the land around Dunnottar burns at 0.18% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Dunnottar’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 9.1 km off.
With 0.1% forest fuel within 5 km and 0.6% within 25 km, the land around Dunnottar gives a fire little to burn.
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 190
At 0.18% a year, Dunnottar is near the top in Manitoba: 9th of 190, behind Flin Flon (Part) (1.68%).
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.
Moderate puts Dunnottar above most of Canada’s 2,610 towns, yet 2.1% rank high or very high and 5.4% share its band.
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 Dunnottar
Flood studies whose area touches Dunnottar, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Dunnottar, 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 Dunnottar is not among them.
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 Dunnottar’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.”
Low seismic risk in Dunnottar: $0.003 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Dunnottar it is only $0.003, 0.1 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Dunnottar’s $0.003 sits under the median in Manitoba, $0.006, and well under Virden’s $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.
At the bottom of Canada’s range, Dunnottar has 99% of the 2,611 towns above it.
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 Dunnottar’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).
Test for radon in Dunnottar: 25% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Interlake health region
A higher share than most: 25% of tested homes around Dunnottar, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Manitoba is 12% over 200 Bq/m³; the survey area around Dunnottar has 25%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One home in five or more tests over the guideline around Dunnottar; 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are in that band and 1.5% 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Dunnottar only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Dunnottar
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Dunnottar; 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 Dunnottar, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Dunnottar’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunnottar | Moderate | $0.003 | 25% | None listed |
| Winnipeg Beach 1,480 · 5.7 km | Moderate | $0.004 | 25% | None listed |
Dunnottar’s moderate band tops its neighbours; Winnipeg Beach is next (moderate).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Dunnottar faces
Practical steps for Dunnottar’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Dunnottar takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Dunnottar’s.
- 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 Dunnottar.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Dunnottar’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 Dunnottar
Is Dunnottar at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Dunnottar’s moderate band (5.2% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Dunnottar?
The area’s survey found 25% of 121 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Dunnottar.
How is Dunnottar’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Dunnottar grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Dunnottar?
About $0.003 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Dunnottar.
Does Dunnottar flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Dunnottar, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
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).