Photo: WabbitWanderer from London, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0A flood study covers Hatchet Lake: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Halifax Regional Municipality
Little of the land around Hatchet Lake has burned: 1.2% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.03% a year. For earthquakes Hatchet Lake is middling, $0.018 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, 13% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hatchet Lake grades B− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Hatchet Lake’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Hatchet Lake: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Hatchet Lake faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hatchet Lake grades B− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Hatchet Lake’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #47 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,724 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.
Little of the land around Hatchet Lake has burned: 0.1% within 5 km, 1.2% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Hatchet Lake’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Hatchet Lake burns at 0.03% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
The ring nearest Hatchet Lake is the most wooded: 81% forest fuel within 5 km against 74% 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
At 0.03% a year, Hatchet Lake ranks 35th of the 90 towns in Nova Scotia; 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.
Hatchet Lake is in the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns; 7.5% sit in moderate or 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.
A flood study covers Hatchet Lake, from Halifax Regional Municipality: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Hatchet Lake, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Halifax Regional Municipality holds the flood mapping that covers Hatchet Lake (2024), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creation of Coastal, Pluvial, Fluvial Flood Hazard Maps for Halifax Regional Municipality | Halifax Regional Municipality | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Nova Scotia reaches 88% of towns, Hatchet Lake included, beside 58% across Canada.
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 Hatchet Lake.
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 Hatchet Lake $0.018 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.
Hatchet Lake’s $0.018 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.6 times as much).
Nobody publishes earthquake risk for Hatchet Lake alone, so this card uses the figure for the city of Halifax.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Nova Scotia: Hatchet Lake’s $0.018 against $0.018; 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.
Most of Canada’s 2,611 towns (68%) face more earthquake damage than Hatchet Lake.
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 Hatchet Lake’s 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).
Radon runs high around Hatchet Lake: 13% of tested homes over the 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 Hatchet Lake: 13% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. Hatchet Lake 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
Ordinary for towns in Nova Scotia at 13% over 200 Bq/m³ (13% is the median), the area around Hatchet Lake had 1% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Hatchet Lake, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Hatchet Lake can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Hatchet Lake
Alerts for Hatchet Lake 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 Hatchet Lake to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Hatchet Lake’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hatchet Lake | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Harrietsfield 6,786 · 9.5 km | Moderate | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Timberlea 11,014 · 12 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Mount Royale 9,340 · 14 km | Moderate | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Westmount 23,207 · 14 km | Moderate | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| South End 22,012 · 14 km | Moderate | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Fairview 16,296 · 15 km | Moderate | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
Next door, Harrietsfield sits in a moderate fire band; Hatchet Lake is low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Hatchet Lake faces
Practical steps for Hatchet Lake’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
- 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 Hatchet Lake.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Hatchet Lake is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Hatchet Lake’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Hatchet Lake’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Hatchet Lake
Does Hatchet Lake flood?
There is flood mapping for Hatchet Lake on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Hatchet Lake’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hatchet Lake grades B− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Hatchet Lake?
The area’s survey found 13% of 101 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Hatchet Lake.
Is Hatchet Lake at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Hatchet Lake’s low band (1.2% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Hatchet Lake?
Expected earthquake damage in Hatchet Lake comes to $0.018 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).