Photo: Miguel Tremblay · CC0A quiet place for hazards: low wildfire, little earthquake risk, and 4% of tested homes over the radon guideline in Whitbourne’s area
Fire seldom reaches Whitbourne: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.003% a year). Seismic risk in Whitbourne sits near the middle: $0.026 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Hazard risk gives Whitbourne a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Whitbourne’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Whitbourne: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Whitbourne faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Whitbourne: A−
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Whitbourne with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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 Whitbourne has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Whitbourne’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Fire claims 0.003% of the land around Whitbourne each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 7.1 km from Whitbourne’s homes, none within 5 km.
Forest thickens with distance from Whitbourne: 71% of the land within 5 km, 77% 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
Whitbourne ranks 25th of the 33 towns in Newfoundland and Labrador for burn rate (0.003% a year), in the lower half; Labrador City leads 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.
Low, like 92% of the country’s 2,610 towns: the land around Whitbourne burns, but slower than in the 7.5% above it.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Whitbourne
Flood studies whose area touches Whitbourne, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Whitbourne; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Newfoundland and Labrador reaches 59% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Whitbourne.
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 Whitbourne.
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.”
Expected shaking damage in Whitbourne: $0.026 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.
0.9 times the typical $0.030: Whitbourne’s $0.026 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Top in Newfoundland and Labrador: Whitbourne’s $0.026 against a median of $0.011.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Whitbourne (53%).
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 Whitbourne’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 low around Whitbourne: 4% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Whitbourne’s area, at 4%. Whitbourne doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Eastern Regional Integrated Health Authority.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Whitbourne, 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.
Whitbourne is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Whitbourne only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Whitbourne
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Whitbourne; 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 Whitbourne, 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)
How Whitbourne’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whitbourne | Low | $0.026 | 4% | None listed |
| Division No. 1, Subdivision Y 1,374 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.014 | 4% | None listed |
| Division No. 1, Subdivision M 1,270 · 14 km | Low | $0.016 | 4% | Yes |
| Clarke's Beach 1,555 · 19 km | Low | $0.010 | 4% | None listed |
Clarke's Beach burns a little more than Whitbourne, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Whitbourne faces
What to do about the hazards Whitbourne faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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 Whitbourne’s.
- 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 Whitbourne 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 Whitbourne floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Whitbourne’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Whitbourne
Is radon a problem in Whitbourne?
Around Whitbourne, 100 survey homes were tested and 4% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How is Whitbourne’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Whitbourne’s Hazard risk grade is A−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Whitbourne at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Whitbourne since 1986 (last in 1999); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Whitbourne?
Expected earthquake damage in Whitbourne comes to $0.026 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Whitbourne flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Whitbourne’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
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).