Photo: Felspar13 · CC BY-SA 4.0Radon is Rosser’s main hazard: 25% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
Wildfire isn’t Rosser’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned 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 Rosser a grade of B−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Rosser’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Rosser: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Rosser faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Rosser: B−
Two inputs always count for Rosser, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Rosser: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Rosser’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Rosser’s 0.000% is in the low band.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Rosser’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 25 km away.
Forest fuel is scarce around Rosser: 0% of the land within 5 km, 0% within 25 km.
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
Little or nothing burns around Rosser in a typical year; 61 of the 190 towns in Manitoba share that, and Flin Flon (Part) leads 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.
Rosser 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.
Manitoba Infrastructure has mapped flooding for Rosser (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Rosser: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Rosser, Manitoba Infrastructure’s from 2019, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Assiniboine River | Manitoba Infrastructure | 2019 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Rosser 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Rosser’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Rosser just $0.006 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Rosser’s $0.006 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
Earthquake risk around Rosser ($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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (88%) face more earthquake damage than Rosser.
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 Rosser’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 Rosser: 25% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 25% over the guideline, the area around Rosser beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Rosser’s area, at 25%, is above the median in Manitoba (12%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One home in five or more tests over the guideline around Rosser; 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are in that band and 1.5% 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 Rosser as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Interlake health region
Weather and fire alerts for Rosser
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Rosser; 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 Rosser, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Rosser
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rosser | Low | $0.006 | 25% | Yes |
| Buchanan 3,473 · 10 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | Yes |
| Crestview 8,658 · 11 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Headingley 5,368 · 11 km | Low | $0.006 | 43% | Yes |
| St. François Xavier 1,607 · 11 km | Low | $0.005 | 43% | Yes |
| Heritage Park 5,817 · 12 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Sturgeon Creek 3,202 · 12 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
Rosser’s low band tops its neighbours; Buchanan is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Rosser faces
What to do about the hazards Rosser 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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Rosser is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Rosser’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Rosser’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Rosser.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Rosser
Is radon a problem in Rosser?
In Health Canada’s survey, 25% of 121 homes tested in Rosser’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Rosser?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Rosser’s buildings lose $0.006 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Rosser flood?
There is flood mapping for Rosser on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Rosser at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Rosser has burned since 1986, the last in 2012, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Rosser’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Rosser’s 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).