Minnetonka’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 12% of area homes over the radon guideline
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Minnetonka: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 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 Minnetonka a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Minnetonka’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Minnetonka: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Minnetonka faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Minnetonka: B+
For Minnetonka, 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.
Wildfire is rare near Minnetonka: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Minnetonka’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Minnetonka in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
The closest burn since 1986 lies 25 km from Minnetonka’s homes, none within 5 km.
Around Minnetonka the forest is thin or far off: 0% of the land within 5 km and 0% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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
Among the 189 towns in Manitoba, Flin Flon (Part) burns fastest (1.68% a year); Minnetonka is with the 60 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Minnetonka is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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 Minnetonka
Flood studies whose area touches Minnetonka, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Minnetonka; 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 Minnetonka.
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 Minnetonka.
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 Minnetonka: $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.
At $0.006 per $1,000, Minnetonka carries 0.2 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Minnetonka at $0.006 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.
Earthquakes cost less around Minnetonka than in 88% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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 Minnetonka’s 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). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Winnipeg
Test for radon in Minnetonka: 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.
Minnetonka’s area, at 12%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places. Minnetonka doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Winnipeg health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Minnetonka, 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.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Minnetonka, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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 Minnetonka 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 Minnetonka
Alerts for Minnetonka 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. |
Evacuation orders for Minnetonka come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Minnetonka’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minnetonka | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Pulberry 7,723 · 1.3 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Pembina Strip 4,715 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Meadowood 6,991 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Worthington 6,093 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Montcalm 5,676 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
| Normand Park 5,299 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.006 | 12% | None listed |
The fire record around Pulberry is a touch heavier than Minnetonka’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Minnetonka faces
Practical steps for Minnetonka’s 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Minnetonka’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Minnetonka’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Minnetonka is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Minnetonka.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Minnetonka
Is Minnetonka at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Minnetonka’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2003), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Minnetonka?
12% of the 66 homes Health Canada tested around Minnetonka topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Minnetonka?
Expected earthquake damage in Minnetonka comes to $0.006 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Minnetonka’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Minnetonka B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Minnetonka flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Minnetonka (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
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).