Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Grand Falls-Windsor faces more hazards than 95% of Canadian towns
With 0.27% of the land around it burning each year, Grand Falls-Windsor sits in the high wildfire band (11% within 25 km since 1986). Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.012 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, 5% of homes tested in Grand Falls-Windsor’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Grand Falls-Windsor grades D for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Grand Falls-Windsor’s hazards
For Grand Falls-Windsor, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Grand Falls-Windsor faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Grand Falls-Windsor grades D for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Grand Falls-Windsor’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #30 of 32 in Newfoundland and Labrador and #2,538 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
A high wildfire band for Grand Falls-Windsor: 28% within 5 km, 11% within 25 km
Past fire around Grand Falls-Windsor’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
High: the land around Grand Falls-Windsor burns at 0.27% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The nearer ring around Grand Falls-Windsor is less wooded (65% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (75%).
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
The land around Grand Falls-Windsor burns at 0.27% a year, the 3rd highest rate of 32 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador; Labrador City tops it at 0.43%.
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.
Grand Falls-Windsor is one of the few of Canada’s 2,610 towns in the high band (1.9%); 0.2% rank very high.
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.
Grand Falls-Windsor is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Department of Environment and Climate Change
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Grand Falls-Windsor: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
One study on the inventory touches Grand Falls-Windsor, Department of Environment and Climate Change’s from 2021, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exploits River Communities | Department of Environment and Climate Change | 2021 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Grand Falls-Windsor is one of the 59% of towns in Newfoundland and Labrador with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 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 Grand Falls-Windsor.
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 Grand Falls-Windsor: $0.012 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.012 per $1,000, Grand Falls-Windsor carries 0.4 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador: Grand Falls-Windsor’s $0.012 against $0.011; Holyrood reaches $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 (84%) face more earthquake damage than Grand Falls-Windsor.
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).
For Grand Falls-Windsor the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
5% of homes tested around Grand Falls-Windsor are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Around Grand Falls-Windsor, 5% of tested homes topped the guideline, near the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Grand Falls-Windsor shares its radon tests numbers with the rest of the Central Regional Integrated Health Authority.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Grand Falls-Windsor’s area, at 5%, is above the median in Newfoundland and Labrador (4%), and 2% 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.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Grand Falls-Windsor, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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.
A low area share in Grand Falls-Windsor 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 Grand Falls-Windsor
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Grand Falls-Windsor; 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. |
For fires near Grand Falls-Windsor, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Grand Falls-Windsor
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Falls-Windsor | High | $0.012 | 5% | Yes |
| Bishop's Falls 3,162 · 14 km | High | $0.010 | 5% | Yes |
Bishop's Falls burns a little more than Grand Falls-Windsor, in the same high band (high here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Grand Falls-Windsor faces
Practical steps for Grand Falls-Windsor’s hazards, most pressing first.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. For Grand Falls-Windsor, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Grand Falls-Windsor sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Grand Falls-Windsor’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Grand Falls-Windsor floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Grand Falls-Windsor
How big is the earthquake risk in Grand Falls-Windsor?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Grand Falls-Windsor’s buildings lose $0.012 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is radon a problem in Grand Falls-Windsor?
5% of the 201 homes Health Canada tested around Grand Falls-Windsor topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Grand Falls-Windsor’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Grand Falls-Windsor grades D for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Grand Falls-Windsor flood?
Grand Falls-Windsor’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is Grand Falls-Windsor at risk of wildfire?
It is: 11% of the land within 25 km of Grand Falls-Windsor has burned since 1986, the latest in 2025, which puts it in the high band that lowers Risk.
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).