Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 4.0Radon is Pinawa’s main hazard: 21% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
The burn rate around Pinawa is 0.17% a year (6.3% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. Seismic risk runs low: $0.005 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Pinawa a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Pinawa’s hazards
For Pinawa, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Pinawa faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Pinawa: B
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Pinawa with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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.
Some fire around Pinawa: 6.3% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Pinawa’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Pinawa is 0.17%, above 0.000% for the typical Canadian town but under the high band.
Pinawa’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 5.7 km away.
More forest grows near Pinawa’s homes (81% within 5 km) than across 25 km (57%).
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 0.17% a year, Pinawa is near the top in Manitoba: 10th 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 Pinawa 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 Pinawa
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Pinawa: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Pinawa has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 18% of towns in Manitoba have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Pinawa 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 Pinawa’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 Pinawa: $0.005 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.2 times the typical $0.030: Pinawa’s $0.005 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Manitoba: Pinawa’s $0.005 sits by the median of $0.006, while Virden reaches $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.
Pinawa 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Pinawa is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
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 Pinawa: 21% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Radon tests for the North Eastman health region
Pinawa’s survey area reads 21% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Pinawa’s area, at 21%, is above the median in Manitoba (12%), and 1% 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.
Pinawa is in the 20–30% band, which holds only 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 1.5% are 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Pinawa, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Pinawa
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Pinawa; 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 Pinawa 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 Pinawa’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pinawa | Moderate | $0.005 | 21% | None listed |
| Lac du Bonnet 3,592 · 15 km | Moderate | $0.004 | 21% | Yes |
| Lac du Bonnet 1,136 · 17 km | Moderate | $0.005 | 21% | None listed |
Nowhere around Pinawa burns more: Lac du Bonnet, the closest rival, is moderate to its moderate.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Pinawa faces
What to do about the hazards Pinawa faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Pinawa, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Pinawa.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Pinawa is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Pinawa’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Pinawa
Does Pinawa flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Pinawa’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is Pinawa at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 6.3% of the land around Pinawa since 1986 (last in 2025); at moderate, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Pinawa?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Pinawa’s buildings lose $0.005 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
How is Pinawa’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Pinawa B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Pinawa?
Around Pinawa, 100 survey homes were tested and 21% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).