Photo: Verne Equinox · CC BY 3.0A flood study covers Cardwell: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
Wildfire is rare near Cardwell: 0.7% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.02% a year. Seismic risk in Cardwell sits near the middle: $0.025 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is higher than usual: 11% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Cardwell a grade of B−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Cardwell’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Cardwell: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Cardwell faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Cardwell: B−
Two inputs always count for Cardwell, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Cardwell: 0% within 5 km, 0.7% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Cardwell’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.02% of the land a year, Cardwell’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The 5 km ring around Cardwell’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 8.8 km out.
About as much forest grows next to Cardwell’s homes (73% within 5 km) as across 25 km (72%).
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 61
At 0.02% a year, Cardwell is near the top in New Brunswick: 16th of 61, 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 Cardwell, 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.
A flood study covers Cardwell, from Service New Brunswick - GeoNB: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Cardwell, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB studied flooding in an area that includes Cardwell (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
Its flood study puts Cardwell with 93% of towns in New Brunswick; Canada’s share is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Cardwell floods.
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 Cardwell: $0.025 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.
Nothing unusual about Cardwell’s ground: $0.025 against a typical $0.030, 0.8 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Cardwell’s $0.025 sits under the median in New Brunswick, $0.036, and well under St. Stephen’s $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: 53% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Cardwell.
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 loss is to Cardwell’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
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 Cardwell: 11% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Region 2 health region
Cardwell’s survey area reads 11% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Below the typical town in New Brunswick (20%) at 11%, the area around Cardwell still had 1% of tests over 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Cardwell 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 Cardwell; 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 Cardwell
Alerts for Cardwell 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 Cardwell to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Cardwell’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardwell | Low | $0.025 | 11% | Yes |
| Sussex Corner 1,532 · 15 km | Low | $0.033 | 11% | Yes |
| Studholm 3,668 · 15 km | Low | $0.029 | 11% | Yes |
| Sussex 4,994 · 16 km | Low | $0.037 | 11% | Yes |
The fire record around Studholm is a touch heavier than Cardwell’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 Cardwell faces
What to do about the hazards Cardwell 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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Cardwell takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Cardwell.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Cardwell’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Cardwell’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Cardwell
Is Cardwell at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.7% of the land around Cardwell since 1986 (last in 2013); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Cardwell?
About $0.025 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Cardwell.
How is Cardwell’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Cardwell grades B− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Cardwell?
Around Cardwell, 101 survey homes were tested and 11% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Does Cardwell flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Cardwell; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the 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).