Photo: Words in the Wind · CC BY-SA 4.035% of homes tested in Souris’ area are above the radon guideline
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Souris, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% 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 Souris a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Souris’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Souris: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Souris faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Souris: C+
Earthquake risk and radon make Souris’ grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #172 of 185 in Manitoba and #1,766 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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 Souris: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Souris’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Around Souris fire takes 0.000% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Only 0% of the land within 25 km of Souris 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 189
Of the 189 towns in Manitoba, 60 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Souris among them; Flin Flon (Part) leads at 1.68% a year.
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.
Souris 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 Souris (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Souris: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Manitoba Infrastructure holds the flood mapping that covers Souris (2018), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Souris River | Manitoba Infrastructure | 2018 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study sets Souris 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 mapping is shown for Souris to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Souris: $0.006 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Souris it is only $0.006, 0.2 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Manitoba: Souris’ $0.006 against $0.006; 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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 88% of its 2,611 towns sit above Souris.
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 Souris’ 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).
35% of homes tested around Souris are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 35% over the guideline, the area around Souris beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Souris, 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.
Souris is in the top band, 30% or more, with just 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.
One home in Souris 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). · Radon tests published for the Assiniboine health region, not by town
Weather and fire alerts for Souris
Alerts for Souris 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 Souris 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)
Get ready for what Souris faces
Practical steps for Souris’ 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 Souris 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 Souris floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Souris’ 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 Souris’.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Souris
Is Souris at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Souris’ band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Souris’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Souris’ Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Souris flood?
Souris’ 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 Souris?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Souris’ buildings lose $0.006 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Souris?
The area’s survey found 35% of 110 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Souris.
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).