Photo: Rioux Photography Edmonton, AB · Public domainClarenville faces fewer hazards than 96% of Canadian towns
Burn scars are few around Clarenville, with 0.3% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.007% a year). Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.009 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, just 4% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Clarenville grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Clarenville’s hazards
For Clarenville, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Clarenville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Clarenville: A+
Seismic risk and radon set Clarenville’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #2 of 32 in Newfoundland and Labrador and #241 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.
Little of the land around Clarenville has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.3% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Clarenville’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.007% of the land near Clarenville burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Clarenville’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 15 km away.
More forest grows near Clarenville’s homes (78% within 5 km) than across 25 km (69%).
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 Newfoundland and Labrador · highest of 32
Labrador City tops the 32 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador at 0.43% a year; Clarenville, at 0.007%, comes 22nd.
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 Clarenville, 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.
A flood study covers Clarenville, from Water Resources Management Division (WRMD), Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Clarenville: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Clarenville, Water Resources Management Division (WRMD), Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s from 1995, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flood Risk Mapping Study Trinity South Area | Water Resources Management Division (WRMD), Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador | 1995 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Newfoundland and Labrador reaches 59% of towns, Clarenville 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 is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Clarenville’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.
Little shaking expected in Clarenville: $0.009 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Clarenville it is only $0.009, 0.3 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Clarenville runs at $0.009 a year, near the $0.011 of the typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador; Holyrood has $0.015.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Earthquakes cost less around Clarenville than in 86% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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 Clarenville.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs low around Clarenville: 4% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority: radon tests
A lower share than most: 4% of tested homes around Clarenville, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Clarenville is ordinary for towns in Newfoundland and Labrador: 4%, beside a median of 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Clarenville’s band, which holds 37%.
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.
A low area share in Clarenville doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Clarenville
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Clarenville; 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 Clarenville come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Clarenville
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clarenville | Low | $0.009 | 4% | Yes |
| Division No. 7, Subdivision K 1,116 · 9.0 km | Low | $0.009 | 4% | None listed |
| Division No. 7, Subdivision L 1,248 · 17 km | Low | $0.009 | 4% | Yes |
| Division No. 7, Subdivision M 1,878 · 18 km | Low | $0.010 | 4% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Clarenville (low); Division No. 7, Subdivision K comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Clarenville faces
Practical steps for Clarenville’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, Clarenville’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 Clarenville.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Clarenville.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Clarenville takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Clarenville
How is Clarenville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Clarenville’s Hazard risk grade is A+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
How big is the earthquake risk in Clarenville?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Clarenville’s buildings lose $0.009 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Clarenville?
The area’s survey found 4% of 100 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Clarenville.
Is Clarenville at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Clarenville’s low band (0.3% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Does Clarenville flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Clarenville; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in 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).