Photo: Ayadm · CC BY-SA 3.0Upper Island Cove faces fewer hazards than 91% of Canadian towns
The burn rate around Upper Island Cove is 0.14% a year (5.7% of the land within 25 km since 1986), a moderate band. 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, just 4% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Upper Island Cove grades A for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Upper Island Cove’s hazards
For Upper Island Cove, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Upper Island Cove faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Upper Island Cove grades A for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Upper Island Cove’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
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.
A moderate wildfire record for Upper Island Cove: 5.7% within 25 km burned, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Upper Island Cove’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Moderate: the land around Upper Island Cove burns at 0.14% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Upper Island Cove’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 17 km away.
Forest fuel covers 49% of the land close to Upper Island Cove and 74% 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
In the top quarter in Newfoundland and Labrador: Upper Island Cove ranks 6th of 33 at 0.14% a year, with Labrador City first 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.
Moderate puts Upper Island Cove above most of Canada’s 2,610 towns, yet 2.1% rank high or very high and 5.4% share its band.
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 Upper Island Cove (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Upper Island Cove, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Upper Island Cove, Department of Environment and Climate Change’s from 2012, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shearstown - Bay Roberts | Department of Environment and Climate Change | 2012 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Newfoundland and Labrador: 59% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Upper Island Cove is among 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 Upper Island Cove’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Upper Island Cove just $0.012 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 Upper Island Cove it is only $0.012, 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: Upper Island Cove’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.
Earthquakes cost less around Upper Island Cove than in 84% 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).
For Upper Island Cove 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).
Little radon around Upper Island Cove: 4% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Upper Island Cove’s area, at 4%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Upper Island Cove is ordinary for towns in Newfoundland and Labrador: 4%, beside a median of 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Upper Island Cove’s band, which holds 37%.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Upper Island Cove’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Data for radon tests covers the Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority
Where to get warnings in Upper Island Cove
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Upper Island Cove; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Upper Island Cove come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Upper Island Cove
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Island Cove | Moderate | $0.012 | 4% | Yes |
| Harbour Grace 2,872 · 4.1 km | Moderate | $0.010 | 4% | None listed |
| Spaniard's Bay 2,664 · 6.3 km | Moderate | $0.011 | 4% | Yes |
| Bay Roberts 6,407 · 8.0 km | Low | $0.010 | 4% | Yes |
| Carbonear 5,041 · 9.6 km | Moderate | $0.010 | 4% | Yes |
| Victoria 1,837 · 13 km | Moderate | $0.009 | 4% | Yes |
| Clarke's Beach 1,555 · 16 km | Low | $0.010 | 4% | None listed |
The fire record around Victoria is a touch heavier than Upper Island Cove’s, but the band is the same: moderate (here moderate).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Upper Island Cove faces
Practical steps for Upper Island Cove’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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Upper Island Cove is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Upper Island Cove, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Upper Island Cove.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Upper Island Cove’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Upper Island Cove
Is radon a problem in Upper Island Cove?
The area’s survey found 4% of 100 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Upper Island Cove.
Is Upper Island Cove at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Upper Island Cove’s moderate band (5.7% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How is Upper Island Cove’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Upper Island Cove’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Does Upper Island Cove flood?
There is flood mapping for Upper Island Cove on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Upper Island Cove?
Expected earthquake damage in Upper Island Cove comes to $0.012 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
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).