Radon is Dalhousie’s main hazard: 24% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
Fire seldom reaches Dalhousie: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.003% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Dalhousie as in most places, at $0.033 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Dalhousie grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Dalhousie’s hazards
For Dalhousie, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Dalhousie faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Dalhousie grades C− for hazard risk
For Dalhousie, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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.
Few fires near Dalhousie: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Past fire around Dalhousie’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.003% of the land around Dalhousie each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Dalhousie’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 6.7 km away.
Forest fuel covers 48% of the land close to Dalhousie and 61% across 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 61
Dalhousie burns at 0.003% a year, 27th of 61 towns in New Brunswick; the leader, Tracadie, reaches 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Dalhousie burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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 Dalhousie (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Dalhousie: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Dalhousie is Service New Brunswick - GeoNB’s, dated 2020; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| 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
Dalhousie 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 is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Dalhousie’s 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Dalhousie $0.033 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
1.1 times the typical $0.030: Dalhousie’s $0.033 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Dalhousie’s $0.033 is close to the median in New Brunswick, $0.036; St. Stephen is highest at $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.
Dalhousie’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 48% 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Dalhousie is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in Dalhousie: 24% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Region 5 health region
Dalhousie’s area, at 24%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Dalhousie’s area, at 24%, is close to the median in New Brunswick (20%); 4.5% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Dalhousie is in the 20–30% band, which holds only 3.1% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 1.5% are 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Dalhousie, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Dalhousie
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Dalhousie; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Dalhousie come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Dalhousie’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dalhousie | Low | $0.033 | 24% | Yes |
| Eel River Crossing 1,918 · 7.2 km | Low | $0.048 | 24% | Yes |
| Balmoral 1,628 · 8.7 km | Low | $0.035 | 24% | Yes |
| Dalhousie 3,255 · 10 km | Low | $0.031 | 24% | Yes |
| Pointe-à-la-Croix 1,294 · 13 km | Low | $0.036 | 25% | None listed |
| Campbellton 7,485 · 13 km | Low | $0.038 | 24% | Yes |
| Charlo 1,386 · 14 km | Low | $0.048 | 24% | Yes |
Charlo burns a little more than Dalhousie, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Dalhousie faces
Practical steps for Dalhousie’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. For Dalhousie, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Dalhousie.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Dalhousie is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Dalhousie’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Dalhousie
Is radon a problem in Dalhousie?
24% of the 110 homes Health Canada tested around Dalhousie topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Dalhousie at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Dalhousie’s band is low, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Dalhousie?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Dalhousie $0.033 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Dalhousie flood?
There is flood mapping for Dalhousie on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Dalhousie’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Dalhousie C−, 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).