Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainRadon is Whitehead’s main hazard: 44% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Whitehead, 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 Whitehead a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Whitehead’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Whitehead: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Whitehead faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Whitehead grades C+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Whitehead 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. The radon share rests on 79 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Whitehead: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Whitehead’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Whitehead in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The 5 km ring around Whitehead’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 21 km out.
With 0% forest fuel within 5 km and 0% within 25 km, the land around Whitehead gives a fire little to burn.
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
Among the 190 towns in Manitoba, Flin Flon (Part) burns fastest (1.68% a year); Whitehead is with the 61 near zero.
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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Whitehead, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
2 flood studies cover Whitehead, the newest from Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management Branch of Manitoba Transporation and Infrastructure
Flood studies whose area touches Whitehead, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management Branch of Manitoba Transporation and Infrastructure and others have studied flooding in areas that include Whitehead: 2 studies, the latest from 2025.
| 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 |
| Hydrodynamic Modelling of Lower Little Saskatchewan: Mapped communities: Minnedosa, Rapid City, Rivers | Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management Branch of Manitoba Transporation and Infrastructure | 2025 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Whitehead is one of the 18% of towns in Manitoba with a flood study on file, fewer than Canada’s 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 Whitehead’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 Whitehead 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.
0.2 times the typical $0.030: Whitehead’s $0.006 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Manitoba is $0.006; Whitehead, at $0.006, is right beside it, and Virden tops the list 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.
Whitehead is in the lower part of Canada’s range for earthquake risk; 88% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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 Whitehead’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).
Test for radon in Whitehead: 44% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Brandon health region
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Whitehead’s area, at 44%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Whitehead, 44% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 3.8% 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.
Whitehead 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Whitehead can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Whitehead
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Whitehead; 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 Whitehead come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Whitehead’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whitehead | Low | $0.006 | 44% | Yes |
| Brandon 59,444 · 15 km | Low | $0.005 | 44% | Yes |
Brandon burns a little more than Whitehead, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Whitehead faces
What to do about the hazards Whitehead 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. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Whitehead 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 Whitehead floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Whitehead’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 Whitehead’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Whitehead
Is Whitehead at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0% of the land around Whitehead since 1986 (last in 2000); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Whitehead?
About $0.006 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Whitehead.
Does Whitehead flood?
Whitehead’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 is Whitehead’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Whitehead’s Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Whitehead?
Around Whitehead, 79 survey homes were tested and 44% 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).