Photo: Tourisme Nouveau-Brunswick · CC BY 2.0Around Atholville, 24% of tested homes have radon above the guideline
Burn scars are few around Atholville, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.002% a year). NRCan expects $0.035 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Atholville, near the typical $0.030. Hazard risk gives Atholville a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Atholville’s hazards
For Atholville, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Atholville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Atholville grades C− for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Atholville, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #37 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,390 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Wildfire is rare near Atholville: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.3% within 5 km
Past fire around Atholville’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.002% of the land a year, Atholville’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Atholville: 46% of the land within 5 km, 60% 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 New Brunswick · highest of 60
Atholville sits mid-table in New Brunswick: 30th of 60 towns, at 0.002% a year, well behind Tracadie (0.28%).
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.
Some fire is mapped around Atholville, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB has mapped flooding for Atholville (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Atholville: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB studied flooding in an area that includes Atholville (2020); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inland Flood Mapping in New Brunswick and Updated Sea-Level Rise and Flooding Estimates for New Brunswick Coastal Sections 2020 | Service New Brunswick - GeoNB | 2020 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Atholville is one of the 93% of towns in New Brunswick with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Atholville to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Atholville: $0.035 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.035 per $1,000, Atholville’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 1.2 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in New Brunswick: Atholville’s $0.035 sits by the median of $0.036, while St. Stephen reaches $0.16.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Middle of the pack: 46% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Atholville.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Atholville.
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 Atholville: 24% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Region 5 health region: radon tests
A higher share than most: 24% of tested homes around Atholville, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Atholville, 24% of tests topped the guideline, close to the typical town in New Brunswick (20%); 4.5% were 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 Atholville; 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Atholville’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Atholville
Alerts for Atholville 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 Atholville to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Atholville’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atholville | Low | $0.035 | 24% | Yes |
| Campbellton 7,485 · 8.7 km | Low | $0.038 | 24% | Yes |
| Pointe-à-la-Croix 1,294 · 12 km | Low | $0.036 | 25% | None listed |
| Listuguj 1,646 · 14 km | Low | $0.053 | 25% | None listed |
The fire record around Campbellton is a touch heavier than Atholville’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 Atholville faces
What to do about the hazards Atholville 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. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Atholville 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 Atholville.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Atholville’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Atholville, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Atholville
Does Atholville flood?
There is flood mapping for Atholville on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Atholville?
In Health Canada’s survey, 24% of 110 homes tested in Atholville’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Atholville?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Atholville $0.035 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Atholville at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Atholville has burned since 1986, the last in 2025, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Atholville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Atholville’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).