Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainSussex is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Service New Brunswick - GeoNB
Little of the land around Sussex has burned: 0.4% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.01% a year. NRCan expects $0.026 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Sussex, near the typical $0.030. Radon is higher than usual: 11% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Sussex grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Sussex’s hazards
For Sussex, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Sussex faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Sussex grades C+ for hazard risk
The grade weighs Sussex’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #2 of 60 in New Brunswick and #1,775 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 Sussex: 0.4% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 3.8% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Sussex’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Sussex fire takes 0.01% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Forest fuel covers 58% of the land close to Sussex and 74% 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 60
At 0.01% a year, Sussex ranks 20th of the 60 towns in New Brunswick; Tracadie leads 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, Sussex 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.
A flood study covers Sussex, from Service New Brunswick - GeoNB: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Sussex, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Service New Brunswick - GeoNB studied flooding in an area that includes Sussex (2020); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| 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%; Sussex has one too.
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 Sussex 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 Sussex $0.026 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.
Earthquake losses in Sussex, $0.026 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (0.9 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Sussex’s $0.026 sits under the median in New Brunswick, $0.036, and well under St. Stephen’s $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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Sussex (53%).
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 Sussex 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).
11% of homes tested around Sussex are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Region 2 health region: radon tests
At 11% over the guideline, the area around Sussex beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Sussex’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 Sussex, 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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Sussex’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Sussex
Alerts for Sussex 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. |
Evacuation orders for Sussex come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Sussex’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sussex | Low | $0.026 | 11% | Yes |
| Sussex Corner 1,532 · 7.0 km | Low | $0.033 | 11% | Yes |
| Sussex 4,994 · 7.8 km | Low | $0.037 | 11% | Yes |
| Studholm 3,668 · 12 km | Low | $0.029 | 11% | Yes |
| Norton 1,551 · 16 km | Low | $0.027 | 11% | Yes |
Studholm burns a little more than Sussex, 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 Sussex faces
What to do about the hazards Sussex faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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 Sussex, 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 Sussex.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Sussex’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Sussex is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Sussex
Is radon a problem in Sussex?
In Health Canada’s survey, 11% of 101 homes tested in Sussex’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Sussex at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.4% of the land within 25 km of Sussex has burned since 1986, the last in 2006, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
Does Sussex flood?
There is flood mapping for Sussex on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Sussex?
Expected earthquake damage in Sussex comes to $0.026 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Sussex’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Sussex 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).