Photo: Verne Equinox · CC BY-SA 3.0Stewiacke is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Province of Nova Scotia
Wildfire is rare near Stewiacke: 0.1% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.003% a year. Earthquake risk in Stewiacke is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.020 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%. Hazard risk gives Stewiacke a grade of C+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Stewiacke’s hazards
For Stewiacke, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Stewiacke faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Stewiacke: C+
The grade weighs Stewiacke’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Stewiacke has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Stewiacke’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Stewiacke burns at 0.003% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Fire has stayed at least 6.1 km from Stewiacke’s homes since 1986.
Forest fuel covers 62% of the land close to Stewiacke and 78% across 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 91
In the lower half in Nova Scotia: Stewiacke at 0.003% a year, 55th of 91, 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Stewiacke 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.
2 flood studies cover Stewiacke, the newest from Province of Nova Scotia
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Stewiacke: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Stewiacke the inventory points to 2 studies, most recently Province of Nova Scotia’s in 2024.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nova Scotia Flood Mapping Minas Basin Area | Province of Nova Scotia | 2024 | final · not public |
| Fundy Agricultural Marshlands Flood Maps | Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture, Saint Mary’s University | 2018 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Stewiacke 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.
The 2 studies touching Stewiacke are spread over time, from the 2010s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Stewiacke.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Stewiacke’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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Stewiacke $0.020 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
With $0.020 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Stewiacke is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Stewiacke’s $0.020 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.
Stewiacke’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 64% of the 2,611 towns are higher.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Stewiacke.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in Stewiacke: 13% of area homes were over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Zone 3 health region: radon tests
At 13% over the guideline, the area around Stewiacke beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
3.1% of tests around Stewiacke 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.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Stewiacke, 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.
Radon varies from house to house in Stewiacke, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Stewiacke
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Stewiacke; 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 Stewiacke 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 Stewiacke’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stewiacke | Low | $0.020 | 13% | Yes |
| Indian Brook 14 1,225 · 11 km | Low | $0.023 | 13% | Yes |
The fire record around Indian Brook 14 is a touch heavier than Stewiacke’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 Stewiacke faces
What to do about the hazards Stewiacke 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. For Stewiacke, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Stewiacke 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 Stewiacke.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Stewiacke’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Stewiacke
Is radon a problem in Stewiacke?
Around Stewiacke, 96 survey homes were tested and 13% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Stewiacke at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Stewiacke since 1986 (last in 2023); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Stewiacke?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Stewiacke $0.020 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
How is Stewiacke’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Stewiacke C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Stewiacke flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Stewiacke; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
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).