Photo: Paulo O from Halifax, Canada · CC BY 2.0A flood study covers Hammonds Plains: 2 on the national inventory, the newest from Halifax Regional Municipality
Fire seldom reaches Hammonds Plains: since 1986, 0.9% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.02% a year). Earthquake risk in Hammonds Plains is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.018 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 13% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Hammonds Plains a grade of B−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Hammonds Plains’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Hammonds Plains: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Hammonds Plains faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Hammonds Plains: B−
Two inputs always count for Hammonds Plains, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #47 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,724 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 Hammonds Plains has burned: 4.6% within 5 km, 0.9% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Hammonds Plains’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Hammonds Plains burns at 0.02% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Within 5 km of Hammonds Plains, 65% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 79%.
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
Hammonds Plains burns at 0.02% a year, 40th of 90 towns in Nova Scotia; the leader, Barrington, reaches 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, Hammonds Plains 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.
Hammonds Plains is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Halifax Regional Municipality
Flood studies whose area touches Hammonds Plains, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
2 studies on the inventory touch Hammonds Plains, the newest Halifax Regional Municipality’s from 2024, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creation of Coastal, Pluvial, Fluvial Flood Hazard Maps for Halifax Regional Municipality | Halifax Regional Municipality | 2024 | final |
| Sackville River | Halifax Regional Municipality | 2017 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
88% of towns in Nova Scotia have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Hammonds Plains has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The 2 studies touching Hammonds Plains are spread over time, from the 2010s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Hammonds Plains.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Hammonds Plains.
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 Hammonds Plains: $0.018 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.
0.6 times the typical $0.030: Hammonds Plains’ $0.018 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Hammonds Plains runs at $0.018 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.
Earthquakes cost less around Hammonds Plains than in 68% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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 model counts damage to Hammonds Plains’ buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Halifax
13% of homes tested around Hammonds Plains are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
More homes than usual test high around Hammonds Plains: 13% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. Hammonds Plains doesn’t get its own radon tests figures; the ones here come from the Zone 6 health region.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Hammonds Plains’ area, at 13%, is close to the median in Nova Scotia (13%); 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.
Hammonds Plains is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are higher.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Hammonds Plains only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Hammonds Plains
Alerts for Hammonds Plains 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 Hammonds Plains 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)
How Hammonds Plains’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hammonds Plains | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Middle Sackville 14,898 · 7.7 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Upper Tantallon 5,248 · 8.1 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Bedford 28,848 · 8.3 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Lower Sackville 20,171 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Hubley 6,337 · 9.2 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Timberlea 11,014 · 10 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
Bedford burns a little more than Hammonds Plains, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Hammonds Plains faces
What to do about the hazards Hammonds Plains 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
- 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 Hammonds Plains’.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Hammonds Plains’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Hammonds Plains floods.
- Radon is a survey. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Hammonds Plains sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Hammonds Plains
How big is the earthquake risk in Hammonds Plains?
About $0.018 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Hammonds Plains.
Is Hammonds Plains at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.9% of the land around Hammonds Plains since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Hammonds Plains’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Hammonds Plains B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Hammonds Plains flood?
Hammonds Plains’ area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is radon a problem in Hammonds Plains?
Around Hammonds Plains, 101 survey homes were tested and 13% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).