Photo: United Kingdom Hydrographic Office · Public domainFew places are as safe from hazards as Harbour Grace: it beats 94% of Canadian towns
Fire reaches the land around Harbour Grace now and then: 7.7% within 25 km since 1986 (0.19% a year), below the high band. Seismic risk runs low: $0.010 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Harbour Grace grades A for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Harbour Grace’s hazards
For Harbour Grace, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Harbour Grace faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Harbour Grace: A
Seismic risk and radon set Harbour Grace’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #5 of 32 in Newfoundland and Labrador and #258 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.
Some fire around Harbour Grace: 7.7% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Harbour Grace’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Moderate: the land around Harbour Grace burns at 0.19% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 12 km from Harbour Grace’s homes, none within 5 km.
There is forest near Harbour Grace’s homes (67% within 5 km) and more of it further out (73% 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 32
At 0.19% a year, Harbour Grace is near the top in Newfoundland and Labrador: 5th of 32, behind Labrador City (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.
Harbour Grace is in the moderate band, which holds 5.4% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 2.1% 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.
No flood study is listed for Harbour Grace
Flood studies whose area touches Harbour Grace, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Harbour Grace on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
59% of towns in Newfoundland and Labrador have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Harbour Grace is not yet one of them.
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 Harbour Grace’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.”
Little shaking expected in Harbour Grace: $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.
At $0.010 per $1,000, Harbour Grace carries 0.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Newfoundland and Labrador is $0.011; Harbour Grace, at $0.010, is right beside it, and Holyrood tops the list 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.
Earthquakes cost less around Harbour Grace 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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Harbour Grace 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).
Radon runs low around Harbour Grace: 4% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 4% over the guideline, the area around Harbour Grace is under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority as a whole, not for Harbour Grace alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Harbour Grace, 4% of tests topped the guideline, about the same as the typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Harbour Grace shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Harbour Grace, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Harbour Grace
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Harbour Grace; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Harbour Grace, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Harbour Grace
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harbour Grace | Moderate | $0.010 | 4% | None listed |
| Upper Island Cove 1,553 · 4.1 km | Moderate | $0.012 | 4% | Yes |
| Carbonear 5,041 · 5.6 km | Moderate | $0.010 | 4% | Yes |
| Spaniard's Bay 2,664 · 8.5 km | Moderate | $0.011 | 4% | Yes |
| Victoria 1,837 · 9.1 km | Moderate | $0.009 | 4% | Yes |
| Bay Roberts 6,407 · 11 km | Low | $0.010 | 4% | Yes |
Victoria burns a little more than Harbour Grace, in the same moderate band (moderate here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Harbour Grace faces
Practical steps for Harbour Grace’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- 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, Harbour Grace’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 Harbour Grace.
- 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 Harbour Grace.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Harbour Grace is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Harbour Grace
How big is the earthquake risk in Harbour Grace?
Expected earthquake damage in Harbour Grace comes to $0.010 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Harbour Grace flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Harbour Grace (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Harbour Grace?
4% of the 100 homes Health Canada tested around Harbour Grace topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Harbour Grace’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Harbour Grace A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Harbour Grace at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Harbour Grace’s band is moderate, with 7.7% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its 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).