Photo: misterjerk2 · CC BY-SA 3.0Upper Tantallon is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Halifax Regional Municipality
Wildfire is rare near Upper Tantallon: 0.5% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.01% a year. Earthquake risk in Upper Tantallon 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. More homes than usual carry radon here, 13% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Upper Tantallon grades B− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Upper Tantallon’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Upper Tantallon: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Upper Tantallon faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Upper Tantallon grades B− for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Upper Tantallon, 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: 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.
Wildfire is rare near Upper Tantallon: 0.5% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 3.8% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Upper Tantallon’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Upper Tantallon is 0.01%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Upper Tantallon: 78% 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
In the upper half in Nova Scotia but far from Barrington (0.46%): Upper Tantallon ranks 43rd of 90, at 0.01% a year.
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, Upper Tantallon 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.
Upper Tantallon is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Halifax Regional Municipality
Flood studies whose area touches Upper Tantallon, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
The newest of 2 studies covering Upper Tantallon is Halifax Regional Municipality’s, from 2024; open its map to see the zones.
| 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
Mapping in Nova Scotia reaches 88% of towns, Upper Tantallon 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.
No single decade dominates: 2 studies for Upper Tantallon between the 2010s and the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Upper Tantallon.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Upper Tantallon 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 Upper Tantallon: $0.018 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.
Nothing unusual about Upper Tantallon’s ground: $0.018 against a typical $0.030, 0.6 times.
Nobody publishes earthquake risk for Upper Tantallon alone, so this card uses the figure for the city of Halifax.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Upper Tantallon’s $0.018 is close to the median in Nova Scotia, $0.018; Clare is highest 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.
Earthquakes cost less around Upper Tantallon 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 Upper Tantallon’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).
13% of homes tested around Upper Tantallon 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 Upper Tantallon: 13% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Zone 6 health region, Upper Tantallon included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
1% of tests around Upper Tantallon passed 600 Bq/m³; over 200, its 13% matches the median in Nova Scotia, 13%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Upper Tantallon 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Upper Tantallon 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 Upper Tantallon
Alerts for Upper Tantallon 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 Upper Tantallon to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Upper Tantallon’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Tantallon | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Head of St Margarets Bay 2,885 · 3.9 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Hubley 6,337 · 4.8 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Hammonds Plains 13,844 · 8.1 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Timberlea 11,014 · 13 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Middle Sackville 14,898 · 15 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
| Bedford 28,848 · 16 km | Low | $0.018 | 13% | Yes |
The fire record around Bedford is a touch heavier than Upper Tantallon’s, but the band is the same: low (here low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Upper Tantallon faces
What to do about the hazards Upper Tantallon 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. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Upper Tantallon’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Upper Tantallon takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Upper Tantallon.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Upper Tantallon’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Upper Tantallon
Does Upper Tantallon flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Upper Tantallon; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is Upper Tantallon at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.5% of the land around Upper Tantallon since 1986 (last in 2025); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Upper Tantallon’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Upper Tantallon B−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Upper Tantallon?
Around Upper Tantallon, 101 survey homes were tested and 13% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Upper Tantallon?
About $0.018 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Upper Tantallon.
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).