Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Guysborough: it beats 91% of Canadian towns
Fire seldom reaches Guysborough: since 1986, 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.001% a year). Earthquake risk in Guysborough is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.017 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 2% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Guysborough a grade of A; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Guysborough’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Guysborough: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Guysborough faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Guysborough: A
Earthquake risk and radon make Guysborough’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #10 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #296 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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 Guysborough has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Guysborough’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.001% of the land a year around Guysborough, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Near or far, forest fuel covers a similar share around Guysborough: 80% within 5 km and 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
Guysborough ranks 69th of the 90 towns in Nova Scotia for burn rate (0.001% a year), in the lower half; Barrington leads at 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Guysborough reads low, with 92% of them; only 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.
Guysborough is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Province of Nova Scotia
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Guysborough: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The newest of 2 studies covering Guysborough is Province of Nova Scotia’s, from 2024; open its map to see the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Shore Flood Mapping Area | Province of Nova Scotia | 2024 | final · not public |
| South/West Primary Watershed | Province of Nova Scotia | 2023 | 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%; Guysborough has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Guysborough.
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 Guysborough: $0.017 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.6 times the typical $0.030: Guysborough’s $0.017 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Guysborough runs at $0.017 a year, near the $0.018 of the typical town in Nova Scotia; Clare has $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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (70%) face more earthquake damage than Guysborough.
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 Guysborough’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).
Little radon around Guysborough: 2% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Guysborough’s area, at 2%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high. Guysborough doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Zone 4 health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Guysborough (2%) than in the typical town in Nova Scotia (13%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Guysborough with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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 share describes the area, not a house: in Guysborough as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Guysborough
Alerts for Guysborough 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 Guysborough 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)
Get ready for what Guysborough faces
Practical steps for Guysborough’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 Guysborough’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Guysborough without grading them.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Guysborough until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Guysborough’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 Guysborough
Does Guysborough flood?
A flood study covers Guysborough on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is radon a problem in Guysborough?
The area’s survey found 2% of 99 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Guysborough.
How big is the earthquake risk in Guysborough?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Guysborough’s buildings lose $0.017 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Guysborough at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Guysborough’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2020) is short of the level that counts.
How is Guysborough’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Guysborough A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).