Photo: Armstrong, William, 1822-1914 · Public domainHigh radon around St. François Xavier: 43% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of St. François Xavier’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.005 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). St. François Xavier grades B− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about St. François Xavier’s hazards
For St. François Xavier, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What St. François Xavier faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
St. François Xavier grades B− for hazard risk
The grade weighs St. François Xavier’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
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.
Few fires near St. François Xavier: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where St. François Xavier’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of St. François Xavier burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Land that isn’t forest covers nearly all the ground around St. François Xavier: forest fuel is 0% within 5 km and 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
Near-zero burning puts St. François Xavier with 61 of the 190 towns in Manitoba, far below Flin Flon (Part) 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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and St. François Xavier sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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 St. François Xavier, from Manitoba Infrastructure: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches St. François Xavier, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches St. François Xavier, 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
Only 18% of towns in Manitoba have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; St. François Xavier is one of them.
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 St. François Xavier’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 St. François Xavier just $0.005 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: St. François Xavier’s $0.005 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: St. François Xavier at $0.005 beside a median in Manitoba of $0.006, with Virden on top 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.
St. François Xavier is among Canada’s quietest towns for earthquakes: 96% of the 2,611 expect more damage.
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).
For St. François Xavier the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
43% of homes tested around St. François Xavier are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in St. François Xavier’s area, at 43%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around St. François Xavier (43%) than in the typical town in Manitoba (12%); 7.4% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
St. François Xavier 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, St. François Xavier’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Central health region
Where to get warnings in St. François Xavier
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for St. François Xavier; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for St. François Xavier come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around St. François Xavier
The same four hazards for the places next door.
Among its neighbours St. François Xavier has the most fire on record (low); Rosser follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what St. François Xavier faces
What to do about the hazards St. François Xavier 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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in St. François Xavier.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for St. François Xavier’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For St. François Xavier, 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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, St. François Xavier takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in St. François Xavier
How is St. François Xavier’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives St. François Xavier B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in St. François Xavier?
About $0.005 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for St. François Xavier.
Is St. François Xavier at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of St. François Xavier since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
Does St. François Xavier flood?
The inventory lists a study touching St. François Xavier; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in St. François Xavier?
Around St. François Xavier, 108 survey homes were tested and 43% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).