Photo: Edgar El · CC BY 3.0Lunenburg’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 6.2% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire isn’t Lunenburg’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.001% a year). Seismic risk in Lunenburg sits near the middle: $0.018 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Lunenburg grades A− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Lunenburg’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lunenburg: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lunenburg faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Lunenburg: A−
For Lunenburg, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #18 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #655 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 Lunenburg has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Lunenburg’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
At 0.001% of the land a year, Lunenburg’s burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Lunenburg’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 17 km away.
The nearer ring around Lunenburg is less wooded (67% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (85%).
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 lower half in Nova Scotia: Lunenburg at 0.001% a year, 69th of 90, far from Barrington’s 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.
Lunenburg 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.
No flood study is listed for Lunenburg
Flood studies whose area touches Lunenburg, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Lunenburg, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Nova Scotia, 88% of towns against 58% nationally, but none in the inventory touches Lunenburg.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Lunenburg to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.”
Expected shaking damage in Lunenburg: $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.
With $0.018 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Lunenburg is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.6 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Nova Scotia is $0.018; Lunenburg, at $0.018, is right beside it, and Clare tops the list 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.
Toward the quiet end of Canada’s range: 68% of its 2,611 towns sit above Lunenburg.
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 Lunenburg’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 about average around Lunenburg: 6.2% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of Lunenburg reads 6.2%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Lunenburg (6.2%) than in the typical town in Nova Scotia (13%), yet 2.1% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Lunenburg, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Lunenburg only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Data for radon tests covers the Zone 1 health region
Weather and fire alerts for Lunenburg
Alerts for Lunenburg 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 Lunenburg 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)
Hazards in the places around Lunenburg
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lunenburg | Low | $0.018 | 6.2% | None listed |
| Mahone Bay 1,200 · 9.7 km | Low | $0.018 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Lunenburg 26,862 · 15 km | Low | $0.022 | 6.2% | Yes |
| Bridgewater 9,989 · 17 km | Low | $0.021 | 6.2% | None listed |
The fire record around Lunenburg is a touch heavier than Lunenburg’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 Lunenburg faces
Practical steps for Lunenburg’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- 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; Lunenburg’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- 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 Lunenburg.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Lunenburg takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Lunenburg’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lunenburg
Does Lunenburg flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Lunenburg (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lunenburg?
Expected earthquake damage in Lunenburg comes to $0.018 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Lunenburg’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Lunenburg A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is Lunenburg at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Lunenburg’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2023), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Lunenburg?
6.2% of the 97 homes Health Canada tested around Lunenburg topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).