Photo: Masterhatch · CC BY-SA 4.0Radon is Pipestone’s main hazard: 35% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Pipestone, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.001% a year). Seismic risk runs low: $0.006 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Pipestone grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Pipestone’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Pipestone: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Pipestone faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Pipestone: C+
Two inputs always count for Pipestone, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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.
Few fires near Pipestone: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Pipestone’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.001% of the land a year, Pipestone’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 17 km from Pipestone’s homes since 1986.
Only 0% of the land within 25 km of Pipestone is forest fuel, and 0% close in.
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
In the top quarter in Manitoba: Pipestone ranks 31st of 190 at 0.001% a year, with Flin Flon (Part) first at 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Pipestone 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.
Pipestone is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Manitoba Infrastructure
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Pipestone: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Pipestone is Manitoba Infrastructure’s, dated 2019; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cromer | Manitoba Infrastructure | 2019 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Manitoba, 18% of towns against 58% nationally, but Pipestone has one.
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 Pipestone.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Pipestone just $0.006 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.2 times the typical $0.030: Pipestone’s $0.006 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk around Pipestone ($0.006) matches the middle in Manitoba ($0.006), far from 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.
Pipestone is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 88% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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 Pipestone’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).
Radon runs high around Pipestone: 35% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Pipestone’s area, at 35%. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Assiniboine health region, with Pipestone one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Pipestone, 35% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.8% over 600, against a median of 12% in Manitoba.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
No band is higher: Pipestone is among the 1.5% of Canada’s towns with 30% or more of tests over 200 Bq/m³.
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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Pipestone as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Pipestone
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Pipestone; 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 Pipestone, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Pipestone faces
What to do about the hazards Pipestone 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Pipestone’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Pipestone without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Pipestone’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Pipestone until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Pipestone
How big is the earthquake risk in Pipestone?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Pipestone’s buildings lose $0.006 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
How is Pipestone’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Pipestone C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Pipestone flood?
A flood study covers Pipestone on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Pipestone at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Pipestone since 1986 (last in 2007); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Is radon a problem in Pipestone?
Around Pipestone, 110 survey homes were tested and 35% 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).