Photo: James Cullin · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazard risk in Twillingate is lower than in 90% of Canadian towns
For Twillingate, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs low: $0.011 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 5% of homes tested in Twillingate’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Twillingate a grade of A, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Twillingate’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Twillingate: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Twillingate faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Twillingate: A
Seismic risk and radon set Twillingate’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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 Twillingate: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Twillingate’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Twillingate at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Forest fuel covers 53% of the land close to Twillingate and 83% across 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
To three decimals the burn rate around Twillingate is zero, as for 8 of the 33 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador, while Labrador City reaches 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.
Like most of Canada’s 2,610 towns (92%), Twillingate is in the low band, with a burn rate of zero to three decimals; 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.
No flood study is listed for Twillingate
Flood studies whose area touches Twillingate, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
There is no study for Twillingate on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Twillingate has no study, where 59% of towns in Newfoundland and Labrador have one against 58% nationally.
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 Twillingate.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Twillingate just $0.011 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 Twillingate it is only $0.011, 0.4 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Twillingate runs at $0.011 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 Twillingate than in 85% 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).
The loss is to Twillingate’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).
5% of homes tested around Twillingate are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Twillingate’s area, at 5%, is close to the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Central Regional Integrated Health Authority, with Twillingate one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Twillingate (5%) than in the typical town in Newfoundland and Labrador (4%); 2% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Twillingate’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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 survey sampled homes around Twillingate; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Twillingate
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Twillingate; 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 Twillingate, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Twillingate
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twillingate | Low | $0.011 | 5% | None listed |
| Division No. 8, Subdivision H 1,798 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.010 | 5% | None listed |
Twillingate’s low band tops its neighbours; Division No. 8, Subdivision H is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Twillingate faces
Practical steps for Twillingate’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- 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 Twillingate’s.
- 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 Twillingate.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Twillingate’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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Twillingate takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Twillingate
How big is the earthquake risk in Twillingate?
About $0.011 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Twillingate.
Does Twillingate flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Twillingate, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Twillingate’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Twillingate grades A for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Twillingate?
The area’s survey found 5% of 201 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Twillingate.
Is Twillingate at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Twillingate since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
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).