Mathers’ hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 12% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire barely registers for Mathers, at 0% of the land 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. Mathers grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Mathers’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Mathers: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Mathers faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Mathers grades B+ for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Mathers, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #10 of 185 in Manitoba and #940 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The radon share rests on 66 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.
Few fires near Mathers: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Mathers’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Mathers burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
With 0% forest fuel within 5 km and 0% within 25 km, the land around Mathers 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 189
Flin Flon (Part) has the highest burn rate in Manitoba, 1.68% a year; around Mathers, as around 60 of the 189 towns, it rounds to 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.
Mathers 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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Mathers
Flood studies whose area touches Mathers, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Mathers; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Manitoba reaches 18% of towns, below the 58% across Canada, and not Mathers.
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 Mathers’ 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.”
Little shaking expected in Mathers: $0.006 a year per $1,000
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: Mathers’ $0.006 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Mathers’ $0.006 is close to the median in Manitoba, $0.006; Virden is highest 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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 88% of its 2,611 towns sit above Mathers.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Mathers’ figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Not measured by town: earthquake risk (the city of Winnipeg)
Radon runs high around Mathers: 12% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
A higher share than most: 12% of tested homes around Mathers, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Mathers’ area, at 12%, is close to the median in Manitoba (12%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Mathers, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Mathers 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). · Radon tests: the Winnipeg health region
Weather and fire alerts for Mathers
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Mathers; 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 Mathers, 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)
How Mathers’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mathers | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| South Tuxedo 3,629 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Tuxedo 4,295 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Brockville 2,632 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| South River Heights 2,632 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Central River Heights 2,736 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Tuxedo Industrial 2,726 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
Nowhere around Mathers burns more: South Tuxedo, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Mathers faces
What to do about the hazards Mathers 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Mathers’ figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Mathers’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Mathers 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 Mathers floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Mathers
How big is the earthquake risk in Mathers?
Expected earthquake damage in Mathers comes to $0.006 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Mathers flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Mathers’ flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Mathers?
Around Mathers, 66 survey homes were tested and 12% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Mathers’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Mathers grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Mathers at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Mathers’ band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
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).