Photo: Verne Equinox · CC BY 3.0Berwick is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Municipality of the County of Kings
Little of the land around Berwick has burned: 0.2% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.006% a year. Earthquake risk in Berwick is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.029 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 5.6% of homes tested in Berwick’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Berwick a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Berwick’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Berwick: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Berwick faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Berwick: A−
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Berwick with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #32 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #892 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.
Wildfire is rare near Berwick: 0.2% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Berwick’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Berwick at 0.006% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Berwick’s homes came within 9.5 km, never inside 5 km.
Forest thickens with distance from Berwick: 23% of the land within 5 km, 59% 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
Some fire is mapped around Berwick (0.006% a year), but it ranks only 46th of 90 towns in Nova Scotia; Barrington has 0.46%.
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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Berwick among them, though its rate is above zero; 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.
Municipality of the County of Kings has mapped flooding for Berwick (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Berwick, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Municipality of the County of Kings studied flooding in an area that includes Berwick (2012); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kings County | Municipality of the County of Kings | 2012 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
88% of towns in Nova Scotia have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Berwick has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Berwick to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Berwick $0.029 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.
At $0.029 per $1,000, Berwick’s earthquake risk is the typical Canadian town’s $0.030.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Berwick’s $0.029 tops the median in Nova Scotia, $0.018, though 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.
Middle of the pack: 51% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Berwick.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Berwick’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
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 Berwick: 5.6% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 5.6% over the guideline, the area around Berwick is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Berwick alone, so this card uses the figure for the Zone 2 health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Berwick (5.6%) than in the typical town in Nova Scotia (13%), yet 2.8% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
A middling share of high tests puts Berwick with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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 Berwick; 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 Berwick
Alerts for Berwick 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Berwick are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Berwick
The same four hazards for the places next door.
Kentville (low) has the heaviest fire record of Berwick’s neighbours, and Berwick (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Berwick faces
What to do about the hazards Berwick 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- 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 Berwick 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 Berwick.
- 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 Berwick’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Berwick’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 Berwick
How big is the earthquake risk in Berwick?
About $0.029 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Berwick.
Does Berwick flood?
There is flood mapping for Berwick on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Berwick?
Around Berwick, 107 survey homes were tested and 5.6% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Berwick at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.2% of the land around Berwick since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Berwick’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Berwick’s Hazard risk grade is A−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).