Wildfire low, radon 12%: how Chalmers stands on hazards
For Chalmers, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.001% a year. Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.006 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Chalmers grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Chalmers’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Chalmers: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Chalmers faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Chalmers grades B+ for hazard risk
For Chalmers, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #10 of 185 in Manitoba and #940 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Only 66 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Chalmers has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Chalmers’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.001% of the land around Chalmers each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Nothing inside 5 km of Chalmers’ homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 17 km off.
Only 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Chalmers 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
Chalmers ranks 31st of the 189 towns in Manitoba for burn rate, at 0.001% 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Chalmers reads low, with 92% of them; only 7.5% rank higher.
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.
No flood study is listed for Chalmers
Flood studies whose area touches Chalmers, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
An empty entry for Chalmers on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Only 18% of towns in Manitoba have a flood study, short of Canada’s 58%, and Chalmers is not among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Chalmers’ homes stand in a flood zone.
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.”
Low seismic risk in Chalmers: $0.006 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.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Chalmers it is only $0.006, 0.2 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Manitoba: Chalmers’ $0.006 sits by the median of $0.006, while 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.
Chalmers 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 model counts damage to Chalmers’ 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). · Earthquake risk published for the city of Winnipeg, not by town
Test for radon in Chalmers: 12% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Winnipeg health region
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Chalmers’ area has 12%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Chalmers, 12% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Manitoba (12%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Chalmers sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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 survey sampled homes around Chalmers; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Chalmers
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Chalmers; 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. |
For fires near Chalmers, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Chalmers
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chalmers | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Munroe West 2,532 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Talbot-Grey 2,756 · 1.2 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| North Point Douglas 2,670 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Luxton 3,047 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Rossmere-B 4,732 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| North St. Boniface 3,358 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Munroe West (low), still no more than Chalmers (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Chalmers faces
Practical steps for Chalmers’ 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Chalmers’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Chalmers’ figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Chalmers.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Chalmers takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Chalmers
Does Chalmers flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Chalmers, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How big is the earthquake risk in Chalmers?
About $0.006 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Chalmers.
Is Chalmers at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Chalmers’ low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2012) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Chalmers?
The area’s survey found 12% of 66 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Chalmers.
How is Chalmers’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Chalmers 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).