Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainRadon is Prairie View’s main hazard: 35% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Prairie View, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.006 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Prairie View a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Prairie View’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Prairie View: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Prairie View faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Prairie View grades C+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Prairie View’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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.
Wildfire is rare near Prairie View: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Prairie View’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Prairie View is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Around Prairie View 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 190
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Prairie View, as for 61 of the 190 towns in Manitoba; Flin Flon (Part) tops the list 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.
Prairie View shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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.
Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management Branch of Manitoba Transporation and Infrastructure has mapped flooding for Prairie View (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Prairie View, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2025 study by Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management Branch of Manitoba Transporation and Infrastructure covers Prairie View, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hydrodynamic Modelling Study for the Upper Assiniboine River: Mapped communities-St. Lazarre and Brandon | Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management Branch of Manitoba Transporation and Infrastructure | 2025 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Prairie View apart in Manitoba, where 18% of towns have one (Canada: 58%).
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Prairie View’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Prairie View 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.
At $0.006 per $1,000, Prairie View carries 0.2 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Manitoba: Prairie View’s $0.006 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.
88% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Prairie View.
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 loss is to Prairie View’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
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 Prairie View: 35% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Prairie View’s survey area reads 35% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Prairie View, 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: Prairie View 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.
One home in Prairie View can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Assiniboine health region
Weather and fire alerts for Prairie View
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Prairie View; 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. |
For fires near Prairie View, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Prairie View faces
Practical steps for Prairie View’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Prairie View sits in.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Prairie View floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Prairie View’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Prairie View’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Prairie View
Is radon a problem in Prairie View?
35% of the 110 homes Health Canada tested around Prairie View topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Prairie View flood?
Prairie View’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
How big is the earthquake risk in Prairie View?
Expected earthquake damage in Prairie View comes to $0.006 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Prairie View at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Prairie View’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Prairie View’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Prairie View C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).