Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center · Public domainHigh radon around Moncton: 20% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
Fire seldom reaches Moncton: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.002% a year). NRCan expects $0.033 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Moncton, near the typical $0.030. Moncton grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Moncton’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Moncton: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Moncton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Moncton grades C− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Moncton’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #25 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,323 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Moncton: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.1% within 5 km
Past fire around Moncton’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Moncton burns at 0.002% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Near or far, forest fuel covers a similar share around Moncton: 70% within 5 km and 74% 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
Moncton burns at 0.002% a year, 30th of 60 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 Moncton 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.
Moncton is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Moncton: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Moncton 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
Flood maps are common in New Brunswick: 93% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Moncton is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Moncton.
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 Moncton $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: Moncton’s $0.033 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in New Brunswick: Moncton’s $0.033 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 48% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Moncton.
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 model counts damage to Moncton’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 Moncton: 20% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Region 1 health region: radon tests
Moncton’s area, at 20%, 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
Around Moncton, 20% of tests topped the guideline, close to the typical town in New Brunswick (20%); 3.7% were over 600.
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 Moncton, 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.
The survey sampled homes around Moncton; 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 Moncton
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Moncton; 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 Moncton, 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 Moncton’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
Riverview burns a little more than Moncton, 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 Moncton faces
Practical steps for Moncton’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. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Moncton’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Moncton without grading them.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Moncton until then.
- 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 Moncton’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Moncton
How is Moncton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Moncton grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Moncton flood?
A flood study covers Moncton on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Moncton at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Moncton’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Moncton?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Moncton’s buildings lose $0.033 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Moncton?
The area’s survey found 20% of 107 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Moncton.
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).