Photo: Felspar13 · CC BY-SA 4.0High radon around Reynolds: 21% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
The burn rate around Reynolds is 0.17% a year (4.5% 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 Reynolds a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Reynolds’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Reynolds: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Reynolds faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Reynolds: B
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Reynolds with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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.
Fire reaches the land around Reynolds: 0.1% within 5 km, 4.5% within 25 km
Past fire around Reynolds’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.17% of the land a year, Reynolds’ burn rate is moderate; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
More forest grows near Reynolds’ homes (69% within 5 km) than across 25 km (51%).
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: Reynolds ranks 10th of 190 at 0.17% 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.
Reynolds is in the moderate band, which holds 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 2.1% 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.
A flood study covers Reynolds, from Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management Branch of Manitoba Transporation and Infrastructure : 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Reynolds: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Reynolds, Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management Branch of Manitoba Transporation and Infrastructure ’s from 2024, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hydrodynamic study for the Whitemouth and Birch Rivers: Mapped communities: Seven Sisters Falls, River Hills, Whitemouth, Elma, Hadashville, Prawda and MacMunn | Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management Branch of Manitoba Transporation and Infrastructure | 2024 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are thinner in Manitoba, 18% of towns against 58% nationally, but Reynolds has one.
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 Reynolds’ 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Low seismic risk in Reynolds: $0.005 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Reynolds’ $0.005 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.2 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Manitoba: Reynolds’ $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.
At the bottom of Canada’s range, Reynolds has 96% of the 2,611 towns above it.
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 Reynolds’ 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).
Test for radon in Reynolds: 21% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 21% over the guideline, the area around Reynolds beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Reynolds (21%) than in the typical town in Manitoba (12%); 1% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Reynolds 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Reynolds as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Data for radon tests covers the North Eastman health region
Weather and fire alerts for Reynolds
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Reynolds; 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 Reynolds, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Reynolds faces
What to do about the hazards Reynolds 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Reynolds floods.
- 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 Reynolds sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Reynolds’ figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Reynolds’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Reynolds
How big is the earthquake risk in Reynolds?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Reynolds $0.005 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Reynolds at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 4.5% of the land within 25 km of Reynolds has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a moderate band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Reynolds flood?
Reynolds’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Reynolds?
In Health Canada’s survey, 21% of 100 homes tested in Reynolds’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Reynolds’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Reynolds’ Hazard risk grade is B, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).