Photo: R Reimer at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Radon is Gimli’s main hazard: 25% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
Fire seldom reaches Gimli: since 1986, 1.4% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.04% 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). Gimli grades B for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Gimli’s hazards
For Gimli, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Gimli faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Gimli grades B for hazard risk
For Gimli, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #141 of 185 in Manitoba and #1,472 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Gimli: 1.4% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 1.1% within 5 km
Past fire around Gimli’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low: the land around Gimli burns at 0.04% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around Gimli: forest fuel is 2.1% within 5 km and 0.9% 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 Manitoba · highest of 189
At 0.04% a year, Gimli is near the top in Manitoba: 22nd of 189, 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.
Some fire is mapped around Gimli, 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.
No flood study is listed for Gimli
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Gimli: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The inventory has nothing for Gimli, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Manitoba, 18% of towns against 58% nationally, and Gimli has none.
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 Gimli.
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.”
Little shaking expected in Gimli: $0.005 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Gimli it is only $0.005, 0.2 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Gimli 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.
Gimli 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).
For Gimli the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
25% of homes tested around Gimli are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Gimli’s survey area reads 25% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Gimli alone, so this card uses the figure for the Interlake health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Gimli’s area, at 25%, is above the median in Manitoba (12%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few of Canada’s 2,611 towns (3.1%) share the 20–30% band with Gimli, and 1.5% sit above it.
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.
Neighbouring homes in Gimli can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Gimli
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Gimli; 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 Gimli 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 Gimli’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gimli | Low | $0.005 | 25% | None listed |
| Winnipeg Beach 1,480 · 15 km | Moderate | $0.004 | 25% | None listed |
Winnipeg Beach has the most fire around it, a moderate band against Gimli’s low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Gimli faces
Practical steps for Gimli’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.
- 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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Gimli, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Gimli takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Gimli’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’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 Gimli.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Gimli
How is Gimli’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Gimli grades B for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Gimli?
The area’s survey found 25% of 121 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Gimli.
How big is the earthquake risk in Gimli?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Gimli $0.005 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Gimli at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Gimli’s low band (1.4% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Does Gimli flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Gimli, 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).