Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0Hazard risk in Barrington is higher than in 97% of Canadian towns
Fire is a regular visitor: 19% of the land within 25 km of Barrington has burned since 1986 (0.46% a year). Seismic risk in Barrington sits near the middle: $0.025 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon around Barrington is ordinary for Canada: 6.2% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Barrington a grade of D−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Barrington’s hazards
For Barrington, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Barrington faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Barrington grades D− for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Barrington with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #2,567 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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.
19% of the land near Barrington’s homes has burned since 1986, 19% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Barrington’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
High: the land around Barrington burns at 0.46% a year, where the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
Forest thickens with distance from Barrington: 52% of the land within 5 km, 65% 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 Nova Scotia · highest of 90
First of 90 in Nova Scotia: Barrington at 0.46% a year, ahead of Argyle (0.21%).
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.
High is rare: 1.9% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Barrington among them, with 0.2% higher still.
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 Barrington
Flood studies whose area touches Barrington, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The inventory has nothing for Barrington, but a local or conservation-authority map may still exist.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Nova Scotia reaches 88% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Barrington.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Barrington’s homes are at risk.
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 Barrington: $0.025 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.
With $0.025 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Barrington is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.8 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.025, Barrington is above the typical town in Nova Scotia ($0.018); Clare has the most at $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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 53% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Barrington.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Barrington.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Barrington: 6.2% of area homes 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 1 health region: radon tests
6.2% of tested homes around Barrington were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Barrington’s area, at 6.2%, is below the median in Nova Scotia (13%), though 2.1% 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.
Barrington is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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.
Neighbouring homes in Barrington can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Barrington
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Barrington; 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 Barrington come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Barrington faces
What to do about the hazards Barrington faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Barrington’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Barrington, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Barrington is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Barrington.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Barrington
Does Barrington flood?
With 0 studies on the inventory, Barrington’s flood risk is unmapped nationally; check with the municipality before buying.
Is radon a problem in Barrington?
Around Barrington, 97 survey homes were tested and 6.2% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Barrington at risk of wildfire?
More than most Canadian towns; Barrington’s high band rests on 19% of nearby land burned since 1986 (most recently 2023).
How is Barrington’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Barrington grades D− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Barrington?
Expected earthquake damage in Barrington comes to $0.025 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).