Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0Flood mapping exists for Timberlea: 1 on record, latest by Halifax Regional Municipality
Little of the land around Timberlea has burned: 1.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.03% a year. Earthquake risk in Timberlea 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 Timberlea a grade of B−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Timberlea’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Timberlea: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Timberlea faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Timberlea grades B− for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Timberlea, 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 Timberlea has burned: 1.3% within 5 km, 1.1% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Timberlea’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Timberlea is 0.03%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest thickens with distance from Timberlea: 61% of the land within 5 km, 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, Timberlea ranks 36th 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.
The low band takes in 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, Timberlea 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.
Halifax Regional Municipality has mapped flooding for Timberlea (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Timberlea: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Timberlea is Halifax Regional Municipality’s, dated 2024; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| 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
Its flood study puts Timberlea with 88% of towns in Nova Scotia; Canada’s share is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Timberlea’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Timberlea: $0.018 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Earthquake losses in Timberlea, $0.018 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (0.6 times).
Timberlea doesn’t get its own earthquake risk figures; the ones here come from the city of Halifax.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Timberlea at $0.018 beside a median in Nova Scotia of $0.018, with Clare on top 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.
68% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Timberlea.
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 Timberlea’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).
13% of homes tested around Timberlea are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
the typical Canadian town has 6.6% over the guideline; Timberlea’s area has 13%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Zone 6 health region, Timberlea included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Timberlea’s 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.
More high tests than most: Timberlea sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% 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 survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Timberlea 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 Timberlea
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Timberlea; Alert Ready carries the urgent ones to phones, radio and TV.
| 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Timberlea come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Timberlea’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timberlea | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Clayton Park West 34,404 · 5.6 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Mount Royale 9,340 · 6.5 km | Moderate | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Fairview 16,296 · 7.8 km | Moderate | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Bedford 28,848 · 8.1 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Westmount 23,207 · 9.3 km | Moderate | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Windsor Park 13,044 · 9.7 km | Moderate | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
Next door, Westmount sits in a moderate fire band; Timberlea is low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Timberlea faces
What to do about the hazards Timberlea 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Timberlea’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Timberlea’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Timberlea 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 Timberlea until then.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Timberlea
How is Timberlea’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Timberlea’s Hazard risk grade is B−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Timberlea?
Around Timberlea, 101 survey homes were tested and 13% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Timberlea at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 1.1% of the land around Timberlea since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
Does Timberlea flood?
A flood study covers Timberlea on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Timberlea?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Timberlea $0.018 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).