Hazard risk in Clarke's Beach is lower than in 94% of Canadian towns
Burn scars are few around Clarke's Beach, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.006% a year). Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.010 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Clarke's Beach a grade of A; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Clarke's Beach’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Clarke's Beach: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Clarke's Beach faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Clarke's Beach grades A for hazard risk
The grade weighs Clarke's Beach’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Clarke's Beach: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Clarke's Beach’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low: the land around Clarke's Beach burns at 0.006% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Clarke's Beach’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 19 km away.
83% of the land within 5 km of Clarke's Beach is forest fuel, close to the 83% 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 Newfoundland and Labrador · highest of 33
Labrador City tops the 33 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador at 0.43% a year; Clarke's Beach, at 0.006%, comes 23rd.
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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Clarke's Beach stays low, with 92%.
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 Clarke's Beach
Flood studies whose area touches Clarke's Beach, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Clarke's Beach, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Newfoundland and Labrador, 59% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Clarke's Beach.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Clarke's Beach.
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.”
Little shaking expected in Clarke's Beach: $0.010 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
0.3 times the typical $0.030: Clarke's Beach’s $0.010 is low for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Clarke's Beach at $0.010 beside a median in Newfoundland and Labrador of $0.011, with Holyrood on top at $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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (86%) face more earthquake damage than Clarke's Beach.
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 loss is to Clarke's Beach’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
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 Clarke's Beach: 4% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority: radon tests
At 4% over the guideline, the area around Clarke's Beach is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador has 4% over 200 Bq/m³; Clarke's Beach’s area has 4%, much the same.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Clarke's Beach, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
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.
One home in Clarke's Beach can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Clarke's Beach
Alerts for Clarke's Beach 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 Clarke's Beach 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)
Hazards in the places around Clarke's Beach
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clarke's Beach | Low | $0.010 | 4% | None listed |
| Division No. 1, Subdivision M 1,270 · 7.1 km | Low | $0.016 | 4% | Yes |
| Bay Roberts 6,407 · 8.3 km | Low | $0.010 | 4% | Yes |
| Spaniard's Bay 2,664 · 11 km | Moderate | $0.011 | 4% | Yes |
| Harbour Main-Chapel's Cove-Lakeview 1,180 · 15 km | Low | $0.014 | 4% | None listed |
| Upper Island Cove 1,553 · 16 km | Moderate | $0.012 | 4% | Yes |
| Holyrood 2,749 · 18 km | Low | $0.015 | 4% | None listed |
The heaviest fire record nearby is Upper Island Cove’s, moderate to Clarke's Beach’s low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Clarke's Beach faces
What to do about the hazards Clarke's Beach 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. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Clarke's Beach’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Clarke's Beach 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 Clarke's Beach.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Clarke's Beach’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Clarke's Beach
Is Clarke's Beach at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.2% of the land around Clarke's Beach since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Clarke's Beach flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Clarke's Beach’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
How big is the earthquake risk in Clarke's Beach?
Expected earthquake damage in Clarke's Beach comes to $0.010 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is radon a problem in Clarke's Beach?
Around Clarke's Beach, 100 survey homes were tested and 4% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Clarke's Beach’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Clarke's Beach A, 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).