Photo: Trevcars1 · CC BY-SA 4.0Stephenville Crossing is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Department of Environment and Climate Change
Burn scars are few around Stephenville Crossing, with 0.1% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.004% a year). Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.013 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is higher than usual: 10% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Stephenville Crossing a grade of B+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Stephenville Crossing’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Stephenville Crossing: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Stephenville Crossing faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Stephenville Crossing grades B+ for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Stephenville Crossing’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Stephenville Crossing has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Stephenville Crossing’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.004% of the land a year, Stephenville Crossing’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The 5 km ring around Stephenville Crossing’s homes is clear of burns since 1986, the nearest 13 km out.
There is forest near Stephenville Crossing’s homes (53% within 5 km) and more of it further out (69% 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; Stephenville Crossing, at 0.004%, comes 25th.
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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Stephenville Crossing among them, though its rate is above zero; 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.
Department of Environment and Climate Change has mapped flooding for Stephenville Crossing (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Stephenville Crossing, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Department of Environment and Climate Change holds the flood mapping that covers Stephenville Crossing (2012), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stephenville Crossing - Black Duck Siding | Department of Environment and Climate Change | 2012 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
59% of towns in Newfoundland and Labrador have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Stephenville Crossing has one too.
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 Stephenville Crossing.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Stephenville Crossing just $0.013 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Stephenville Crossing it is only $0.013, 0.4 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador: Stephenville Crossing’s $0.013 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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 75% of its 2,611 towns sit above Stephenville Crossing.
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 model counts damage to Stephenville Crossing’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 Stephenville Crossing: 10% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Western Regional Integrated Health Authority
A higher share than most: 10% of tested homes around Stephenville Crossing, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Stephenville Crossing than in most towns in Newfoundland and Labrador: 10% over the guideline (4% is typical), 1.9% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Stephenville Crossing 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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Stephenville Crossing as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Stephenville Crossing
Alerts for Stephenville Crossing 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Stephenville Crossing to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Stephenville Crossing’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephenville Crossing | Low | $0.013 | 10% | Yes |
| St. George's 1,181 · 10 km | Low | $0.010 | 10% | None listed |
| Stephenville 6,840 · 12 km | Low | $0.011 | 10% | Yes |
| Kippens 1,927 · 15 km | Low | $0.007 | 10% | Yes |
The fire record around St. George's is a touch heavier than Stephenville Crossing’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Stephenville Crossing faces
Practical steps for Stephenville Crossing’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. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Stephenville Crossing’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Stephenville Crossing’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Stephenville Crossing sits in.
- 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 Stephenville Crossing floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Stephenville Crossing
How big is the earthquake risk in Stephenville Crossing?
About $0.013 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Stephenville Crossing.
Is radon a problem in Stephenville Crossing?
The area’s survey found 10% of 211 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Stephenville Crossing.
Does Stephenville Crossing flood?
Stephenville Crossing’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 Stephenville Crossing at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Stephenville Crossing’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 1990) is short of the level that counts.
How is Stephenville Crossing’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Stephenville Crossing’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).