Photo: Marek Koudelka · CC BY-SA 4.0Radon is Salisbury’s main hazard: 20% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
Wildfire is rare near Salisbury: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.002% a year. Earthquake risk in Salisbury is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.035 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Hazard risk gives Salisbury a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Salisbury’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Salisbury: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Salisbury faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Salisbury: C−
For Salisbury, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #30 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,345 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.
Little of the land around Salisbury has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Salisbury’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.002% of the land near Salisbury burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Salisbury’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 6.7 km away.
Forest thickens with distance from Salisbury: 65% of the land within 5 km, 75% 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 upper half in New Brunswick but far from Tracadie (0.28%): Salisbury ranks 30th of 60, at 0.002% 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 Salisbury, 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.
Salisbury is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Salisbury: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2020 study by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB covers Salisbury, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| 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
93% of towns in New Brunswick have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Salisbury has one too.
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 Salisbury’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.
Expected shaking damage in Salisbury: $0.035 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
With $0.035 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Salisbury is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.2 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in New Brunswick: Salisbury’s $0.035 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 sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 46% 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).
The model counts damage to Salisbury’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).
20% of homes tested around Salisbury are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Region 1 health region
Salisbury’s survey area reads 20% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Salisbury as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Salisbury, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Salisbury
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salisbury | Low | $0.035 | 20% | Yes |
| Salisbury 3,806 · 9.3 km | Low | $0.030 | 20% | Yes |
| Petitcodiac 1,610 · 14 km | Low | $0.026 | 20% | None listed |
The fire record around Salisbury 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
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Salisbury’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. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Salisbury floods.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Salisbury sits in.
- 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 Salisbury’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Salisbury
How is Salisbury’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Salisbury’s Hazard risk grade is C−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Salisbury?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Salisbury’s buildings lose $0.035 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Salisbury?
The area’s survey found 20% of 107 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Salisbury.
Is Salisbury at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Salisbury’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2013) is short of the level that counts.
Does Salisbury flood?
Salisbury’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
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).