Photo: Azure /Mark Seymour · CC BY-SA 3.0A flood study covers Amherst: 2 on the national inventory, the newest from Province of Nova Scotia
Burn scars are few around Amherst, with 0.2% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.006% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Amherst as in most places, at $0.022 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is higher than usual: 13% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Amherst a grade of C+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Amherst’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Amherst: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Amherst faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Amherst: C+
Seismic risk and radon set Amherst’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #84 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,843 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
Little of the land around Amherst has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.2% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Amherst’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
With 0.006% burned a year, Amherst is among the many low-band places (the typical Canadian town 0.000%).
Amherst’s homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 5.9 km away.
The nearer ring around Amherst is less wooded (33% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (65%).
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 Nova Scotia · highest of 90
Barrington tops the 90 towns in Nova Scotia at 0.46% a year; Amherst, at 0.006%, comes 46th.
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.
Some fire is mapped around Amherst, but not enough to leave the low band, where 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are; 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.
Flooding around Amherst is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Province of Nova Scotia
Flood studies whose area touches Amherst, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The newest of 2 studies covering Amherst is Province of Nova Scotia’s, from 2024; open its map to see the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Bay of Fundy Flood Mapping Area | Province of Nova Scotia | 2024 | final · not public |
| Fundy Agricultural Marshlands Flood Maps | Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture, Saint Mary’s University | 2018 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Nova Scotia reaches 88% of towns, Amherst included, beside 58% across Canada.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping around Amherst has come in steps: 2 studies from the 2010s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Amherst.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Amherst.
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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Amherst: $0.022 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
At $0.022 per $1,000, Amherst’s earthquake risk is about the typical Canadian town’s ($0.030; 0.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Nova Scotia: Amherst’s $0.022 sits by the median of $0.018, while Clare reaches $0.034.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Amherst sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 61% expect more shaking damage.
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 Amherst’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).
Test for radon in Amherst: 13% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Zone 3 health region: radon tests
Amherst’s area, at 13%, is above the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, so testing is worth more here than most places.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Amherst’s area, at 13%, is close to the median in Nova Scotia (13%); 3.1% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More high tests than most: Amherst sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% above.
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.
One home in Amherst can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Amherst
Alerts for Amherst 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. |
Evacuation orders for Amherst come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Amherst’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amherst | Low | $0.022 | 13% | Yes |
| Cumberland County, Subdivision C 6,040 · 9.1 km | Low | $0.026 | 13% | Yes |
| Sackville 6,572 · 15 km | Low | $0.028 | 20% | Yes |
| Sackville 1,286 · 18 km | Low | $0.028 | 20% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Amherst has the most fire on record (low); Sackville follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Amherst faces
Practical steps for Amherst’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 Amherst’s.
- 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 Amherst.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Amherst is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Amherst’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 Amherst
Does Amherst flood?
There is flood mapping for Amherst on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Amherst’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Amherst grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is Amherst at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Amherst’s low band (0.2% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Amherst?
About $0.022 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Amherst.
Is radon a problem in Amherst?
The area’s survey found 13% of 96 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Amherst.
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).