Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainRadon is Salisbury’s main hazard: 20% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
Wildfire is rare near Salisbury: 1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.02% a year. Seismic risk in Salisbury sits near the middle: $0.030 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Salisbury a grade of C−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Salisbury’s hazards
For Salisbury, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Salisbury faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Salisbury grades C− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Salisbury’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #19 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,292 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 Salisbury: 1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.3% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Salisbury’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Salisbury burns at 0.02% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Salisbury: 70% of the land within 5 km, 77% 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
In the top quarter in New Brunswick: Salisbury ranks 13th of 60 at 0.02% a year, with Tracadie first at 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Salisbury among them, though its rate is above zero; 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.
Salisbury is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
Flood studies whose area touches Salisbury, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The flood study touching Salisbury 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
Salisbury 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Salisbury’s homes are at risk.
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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Salisbury: $0.030 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Salisbury’s $0.030 is the typical figure ($0.030): ordinary ground for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in New Brunswick: Salisbury’s $0.030 against $0.036; 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.
Salisbury’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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Salisbury.
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 Salisbury: 20% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Salisbury’s area has 20%. Salisbury doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Region 1 health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
3.7% of tests around Salisbury passed 600 Bq/m³; over 200, its 20% matches the median in New Brunswick, 20%.
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 Salisbury, 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.
Whatever Salisbury’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Salisbury
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Salisbury; 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 Salisbury, 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)
Hazards in the places around Salisbury
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salisbury | Low | $0.030 | 20% | Yes |
| Petitcodiac 1,610 · 7.6 km | Low | $0.026 | 20% | None listed |
| Salisbury 2,585 · 9.3 km | Low | $0.035 | 20% | Yes |
| Havelock 1,105 · 15 km | Low | $0.031 | 11% | None listed |
The fire record around Havelock is a touch heavier than Salisbury’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 Salisbury faces
Practical steps for Salisbury’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Salisbury’s included.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Salisbury.
- 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 Salisbury.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Salisbury is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Salisbury
Is Salisbury at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Salisbury’s band is low, with 1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2013), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Salisbury?
20% of the 107 homes Health Canada tested around Salisbury topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Salisbury flood?
There is flood mapping for Salisbury on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Salisbury?
Expected earthquake damage in Salisbury comes to $0.030 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Salisbury’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Salisbury grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers 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).