Photo: Krazytea · CC BY-SA 4.0Around Whitemouth, 21% of tested homes have radon above the guideline
Wildfire is a moderate presence around Whitemouth: 3.9% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, 0.10% a year, short of the band that counts against Risk. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.005 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Whitemouth a grade of B; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Whitemouth’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Whitemouth: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Whitemouth faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Whitemouth grades B for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Whitemouth’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of 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.
Some fire around Whitemouth: 3.9% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 11% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Whitemouth’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.10% of the land a year, Whitemouth’s burn rate is moderate; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Whitemouth: 15% of the land within 5 km, 56% 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
Whitemouth ranks 14th of the 190 towns in Manitoba for burn rate, at 0.10% a year; Flin Flon (Part) leads with 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.
Moderate puts Whitemouth above most of Canada’s 2,610 towns, yet 2.1% rank high or very high and 5.4% share its band.
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.
Whitemouth is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management Branch of Manitoba Transporation and Infrastructure
Flood studies whose area touches Whitemouth, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management Branch of Manitoba Transporation and Infrastructure holds the flood mapping that covers Whitemouth (2024), linked below.
| 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
Only 18% of towns in Manitoba have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%; Whitemouth is one of them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Whitemouth.
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 Whitemouth: $0.005 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.005 per $1,000, Whitemouth carries 0.2 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Whitemouth runs at $0.005 a year, near the $0.006 of the typical town in Manitoba; Virden has $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.
Nearly every one of Canada’s 2,611 towns (96%) expects more shaking damage than Whitemouth.
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 Whitemouth’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 Whitemouth: 21% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the North Eastman health region
A higher share than most: 21% of tested homes around Whitemouth, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Whitemouth (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.
One home in five or more tests over the guideline around Whitemouth; 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Whitemouth only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Whitemouth
Alerts for Whitemouth 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Whitemouth to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Whitemouth faces
Practical steps for Whitemouth’s hazards, most pressing first.
- 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
- 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 Whitemouth sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Whitemouth’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Whitemouth’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Whitemouth floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Whitemouth
Is radon a problem in Whitemouth?
21% of the 100 homes Health Canada tested around Whitemouth topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Whitemouth flood?
Whitemouth’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is Whitemouth at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Whitemouth’s band is moderate, with 3.9% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Whitemouth?
Expected earthquake damage in Whitemouth comes to $0.005 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Whitemouth’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Whitemouth B, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).