Photo: Verne Equinox · CC BY-SA 4.0Windsor is on Canada’s flood inventory: 4 listed, led by Halifax Regional Municipality
Little of the land around Windsor has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.002% a year. Seismic risk in Windsor sits near the middle: $0.022 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 13% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Windsor grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Windsor’s hazards
For Windsor, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Windsor faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Windsor grades C+ for hazard risk
For Windsor, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #85 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,855 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Windsor has burned: 0.1% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Windsor’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.002% of the land a year around Windsor, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Within 5 km of Windsor, 67% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 78%.
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
Some fire is mapped around Windsor (0.002% a year), but it ranks only 60th of 90 towns in Nova Scotia; Barrington has 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, Windsor 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.
4 flood studies cover Windsor, the newest from Halifax Regional Municipality
Flood studies whose area touches Windsor, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Halifax Regional Municipality and others have studied flooding in areas that include Windsor: 4 studies, the latest from 2024.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creation of Coastal, Pluvial, Fluvial Flood Hazard Maps for Halifax Regional Municipality | Halifax Regional Municipality | 2024 | final |
| 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 |
| Kings County | Municipality of the County of Kings | 2012 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
88% of towns in Nova Scotia have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Windsor has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping around Windsor has come in steps: 4 studies from the 2010s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Windsor.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Windsor’s homes are at risk.
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 Windsor: $0.022 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
0.7 times the typical $0.030: Windsor’s $0.022 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Nova Scotia: Windsor’s $0.022 sits by the median of $0.018, while 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.
Middle of the pack: 61% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Windsor.
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).
For Windsor the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
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 Windsor are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
At 13% over the guideline, the area around Windsor beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Windsor 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
1% of tests around Windsor 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.
More high tests than most: Windsor 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.
Whatever Windsor’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Windsor
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Windsor; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Windsor, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Windsor’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windsor | Low | $0.022 | 13% | Yes |
| Kings County, Subdivision D 6,517 · 18 km | Low | $0.018 | 5.6% | Yes |
Windsor’s low band tops its neighbours; Kings County, Subdivision D is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Windsor faces
Practical steps for Windsor’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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Windsor, 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. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Windsor sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Windsor’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. A study’s area can be a whole watershed or province, so being on the inventory says a map exists, not that a home in Windsor floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Windsor
How is Windsor’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Windsor grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Windsor?
The area’s survey found 13% of 101 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Windsor.
Does Windsor flood?
Windsor’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is Windsor at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Windsor’s low band (0.1% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Windsor?
About $0.022 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Windsor.
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).