Photo: Reynoborn64 · Public domainDigby is on Canada’s flood inventory: 3 listed, led by Province of Nova Scotia
Little of the land around Digby has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.002% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Digby as in most places, at $0.027 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Digby’s survey area, 6.2% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Digby grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Digby’s hazards
For Digby, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Digby faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Digby grades B+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Digby’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #33 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #898 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.
Few fires near Digby: 0.1% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Digby’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
In a typical year 0.002% of the land near Digby burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Digby: 77% within 5 km, 82% 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 Digby (0.002% a year), but it ranks only 60th 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, Digby 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.
Flooding around Digby is mapped in 3 studies, the newest by Province of Nova Scotia
Flood studies whose area touches Digby, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The newest of 3 studies covering Digby is Province of Nova Scotia’s, from 2024; open its map to see the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nova Scotia Flood Mapping Minas Basin Area | Province of Nova Scotia | 2024 | final · not public |
| Sissiboo/Bear Primary Watershed | Province of Nova Scotia | 2023 | 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
88% of towns in Nova Scotia have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Digby has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The studies touching Digby lean recent: 2 of 3 date from the 2020s, the first from the 2010s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Digby.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Digby floods.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Digby: $0.027 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.
Digby’s $0.027 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.9 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.027, Digby 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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Digby (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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Digby.
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 Digby: 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
The survey area of Digby reads 6.2%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Digby (6.2%) than in the typical town in Nova Scotia (13%), yet 2.1% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Digby, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank 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.
A low area share in Digby doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Digby
Alerts for Digby 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Digby to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Digby’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digby | Low | $0.027 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Digby 2,153 · 14 km | Low | $0.019 | 6.2% | Yes |
Nowhere around Digby burns more: Digby, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Digby faces
Practical steps for Digby’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. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Digby’s included.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Digby 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 Digby.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Digby.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Digby
How big is the earthquake risk in Digby?
Expected earthquake damage in Digby comes to $0.027 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Digby at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Digby’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2023) is short of the level that counts.
Does Digby flood?
There is flood mapping for Digby on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Digby’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Digby’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Digby?
The area’s survey found 6.2% of 97 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Digby.
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).