Photo: Shahnoor Habib Munmun · CC BY 3.043% of homes tested in Portage la Prairie’s area are above the radon guideline
Burn scars are few around Portage la Prairie, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.003% a year). Seismic risk runs low: $0.006 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Portage la Prairie a grade of C+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Portage la Prairie’s hazards
For Portage la Prairie, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Portage la Prairie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Portage la Prairie: C+
The grade weighs Portage la Prairie’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #174 of 185 in Manitoba and #1,819 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 Portage la Prairie: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Portage la Prairie’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.003% of the land a year around Portage la Prairie, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The 5 km ring around Portage la Prairie’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 20 km out.
Around Portage la Prairie the forest is thin or far off: 0% of the land within 5 km and 0% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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
Portage la Prairie ranks 28th of the 189 towns in Manitoba for burn rate, at 0.003% a year; Flin Flon (Part) leads with 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Portage la Prairie among them, though its rate is above zero; 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.
Portage la Prairie is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Manitoba Infrastructure
Flood studies whose area touches Portage la Prairie, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Manitoba Infrastructure studied flooding in an area that includes Portage la Prairie (2019); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Assiniboine River | Manitoba Infrastructure | 2019 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Portage la Prairie is one of the 18% of towns in Manitoba with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Portage la Prairie floods.
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 Portage la Prairie just $0.006 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.
0.2 times the typical $0.030: Portage la Prairie’s $0.006 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Manitoba is $0.006; Portage la Prairie, at $0.006, is right beside it, and Virden tops the list 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.
88% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Portage la Prairie.
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 Portage la Prairie 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 Portage la Prairie: 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.
A higher share than most: 43% of tested homes around Portage la Prairie, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Portage la Prairie than in most towns in Manitoba: 43% over the guideline (12% is typical), 7.4% over 600.
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 Portage la Prairie, 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 low area share in Portage la Prairie doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Data for radon tests covers the Central health region
Where to get warnings in Portage la Prairie
Alerts for Portage la Prairie come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Portage la Prairie are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Portage la Prairie
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portage la Prairie | Low | $0.006 | 43% | Yes |
| Portage la Prairie 7,359 · 10 km | Low | $0.005 | 43% | Yes |
| Long Plain 6 1,579 · 19 km | Low | $0.005 | 43% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Portage la Prairie has the most fire on record (low); Long Plain 6 follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Portage la Prairie faces
What to do about the hazards Portage la Prairie 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Portage la Prairie’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Portage la Prairie, 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. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Portage la Prairie is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Portage la Prairie.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Portage la Prairie
How is Portage la Prairie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Portage la Prairie C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Portage la Prairie flood?
There is flood mapping for Portage la Prairie on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Portage la Prairie?
Around Portage la Prairie, 108 survey homes were tested and 43% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Portage la Prairie at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Portage la Prairie since 1986 (last in 1990); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Portage la Prairie?
Expected earthquake damage in Portage la Prairie comes to $0.006 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).