Photo: Dr Wilson · CC BY-SA 3.0Radon is Wicklow’s main hazard: 17% of tested homes in its area top Health Canada’s guideline
For Wicklow, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Wicklow as in most places, at $0.043 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Wicklow a grade of C−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Wicklow’s hazards
For Wicklow, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Wicklow faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Wicklow grades C− for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Wicklow with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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.
Little of the land around Wicklow has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Wicklow’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Wicklow burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Fire has stayed at least 23 km from Wicklow’s homes since 1986.
Forest thickens with distance from Wicklow: 35% of the land within 5 km, 43% 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 61
Of the 61 towns in New Brunswick, 16 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Wicklow among them; Tracadie leads at 0.28% 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Wicklow, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
No flood study is listed for Wicklow
Flood studies whose area touches Wicklow, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Wicklow, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Wicklow has no flood study on file, though 93% of towns in New Brunswick do (Canada: 58%).
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 Wicklow.
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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Wicklow: $0.043 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.
Wicklow’s $0.043 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (1.4 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in New Brunswick: Wicklow’s $0.043 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: 36% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Wicklow.
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 Wicklow.
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 Wicklow: 17% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Region 3 health region
More homes than usual test high around Wicklow: 17% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Wicklow’s area, at 17%, is close to the median in New Brunswick (20%); 7.1% 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.
Wicklow is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are 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 Wicklow’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 Wicklow
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Wicklow; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Wicklow come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Wicklow’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wicklow | Low | $0.043 | 17% | None listed |
| Florenceville-Bristol 1,583 · 6.2 km | Low | $0.042 | 17% | None listed |
| Kent 2,028 · 8.6 km | Low | $0.042 | 17% | None listed |
| Wilmot 1,057 · 14 km | Low | $0.062 | 17% | None listed |
| Peel 1,176 · 15 km | Low | $0.040 | 17% | None listed |
The neighbour with the most fire is Florenceville-Bristol (low), still no more than Wicklow (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Wicklow faces
What to do about the hazards Wicklow 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Wicklow.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Wicklow’s included.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Wicklow is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Wicklow.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Wicklow
Is radon a problem in Wicklow?
In Health Canada’s survey, 17% of 112 homes tested in Wicklow’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Wicklow flood?
Nothing is listed for Wicklow on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
How is Wicklow’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Wicklow grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Wicklow?
Expected earthquake damage in Wicklow comes to $0.043 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Wicklow at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Wicklow has burned since 1986, the last in 2013, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
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).