Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Flood mapping exists for Norton: 1 on record, latest by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
Wildfire is rare near Norton: 0.4% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.01% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Norton as in most places, at $0.024 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). More homes than usual carry radon here, 11% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Norton a grade of B−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Norton’s hazards
For Norton, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Norton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Norton grades B− for hazard risk
For Norton, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Norton has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.4% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Norton’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.01% of the land a year, Norton’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Norton’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 22 km away.
About as much forest grows next to Norton’s homes (73% within 5 km) as across 25 km (77%).
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
In the upper half in New Brunswick but far from Tracadie (0.28%): Norton ranks 22nd of 61, at 0.01% a year.
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 Norton, 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 Norton (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Norton, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Norton the inventory points to Service New Brunswick - GeoNB’s 2020 study, whose map is the one to check.
| 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
Mapping in New Brunswick reaches 93% of towns, Norton included, beside 58% across Canada.
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 Norton 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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Norton $0.024 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.024 per $1,000, Norton’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in New Brunswick: Norton’s $0.024 against a median of $0.036; St. Stephen has $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.
Norton sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 54% expect more shaking damage.
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 Norton.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
11% of homes tested around Norton are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Norton’s survey area reads 11% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Norton doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Region 2 health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Norton’s area, at 11%, is below the median in New Brunswick (20%), though 1% 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.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Norton, 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.
Neighbouring homes in Norton can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Norton
Alerts for Norton 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 Norton to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Norton
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norton | Low | $0.024 | 11% | Yes |
| Hampton 4,754 · 6.4 km | Low | $0.029 | 11% | Yes |
| Upham 1,388 · 8.4 km | Low | $0.024 | 11% | None listed |
| Hampton 3,268 · 10 km | Low | $0.023 | 11% | Yes |
| Norton 1,551 · 12 km | Low | $0.027 | 11% | Yes |
| Springfield 1,751 · 17 km | Low | $0.026 | 11% | Yes |
The fire record around Norton is a touch heavier than Norton’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 Norton faces
Practical steps for Norton’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
- 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 Norton until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Norton without grading them.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Norton, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Norton’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Norton
Does Norton flood?
A flood study covers Norton on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How is Norton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Norton B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Norton?
About $0.024 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Norton.
Is Norton at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Norton’s band is low, with 0.4% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2006), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Norton?
11% of the 101 homes Health Canada tested around Norton topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).