Photo: chester902 · Public domainWolfville is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture, Saint Mary’s University
Little of the land around Wolfville has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.002% a year. Seismic risk in Wolfville sits near the middle: $0.016 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon around Wolfville is ordinary for Canada: 5.6% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Wolfville grades A− for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Wolfville’s hazards
For Wolfville, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Wolfville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Wolfville grades A− for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Wolfville, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
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.
Wildfire is rare near Wolfville: 0.1% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Wolfville’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.002% of the land a year around Wolfville, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Nothing inside 5 km of Wolfville’s homes has burned since 1986, and the nearest scar is 7.4 km off.
The nearer ring around Wolfville is less wooded (22% forest fuel) than the land out to 25 km (57%).
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 Wolfville (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.
Wolfville 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.
Wolfville is on the flood map inventory: 2 studies, latest by Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture, Saint Mary’s University
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Wolfville: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture, Saint Mary’s University and others have studied flooding in areas that include Wolfville: 2 studies, the latest from 2018.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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
Flood maps are common in Nova Scotia: 88% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Wolfville is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Wolfville.
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 Wolfville: $0.016 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Earthquake losses in Wolfville, $0.016 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (0.5 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Wolfville runs at $0.016 a year, near the $0.018 of the typical town in Nova Scotia; Clare has $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.
71% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Wolfville.
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).
Only shaking damage to buildings in Wolfville is counted; landslides, liquefaction, tsunami and fire after a quake aren’t.
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 Wolfville: 5.6% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Zone 2 health region: radon tests
5.6% of tested homes around Wolfville were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Wolfville’s area, at 5.6%, is below the median in Nova Scotia (13%), though 2.8% 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.
A middling share of high tests puts Wolfville with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below 26% of them.
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 Wolfville’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 Wolfville
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Wolfville; 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 Wolfville, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Wolfville’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wolfville | Low | $0.016 | 5.6% | Yes |
| Kings County, Subdivision D 6,517 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.018 | 5.6% | Yes |
| Kings County, Subdivision B 12,661 · 8.9 km | Low | $0.022 | 5.6% | Yes |
| Kings County, Subdivision C 8,994 · 11 km | Low | $0.020 | 5.6% | Yes |
| Kentville 7,589 · 11 km | Low | $0.017 | 5.6% | Yes |
Kings County, Subdivision B burns a little more than Wolfville, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Wolfville faces
What to do about the hazards Wolfville 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. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Wolfville.
- 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 Wolfville.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Wolfville takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Wolfville’s included.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Wolfville
Is radon a problem in Wolfville?
In Health Canada’s survey, 5.6% of 107 homes tested in Wolfville’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Wolfville at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.1% of the land within 25 km of Wolfville has burned since 1986, the last in 2023, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Wolfville?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Wolfville’s buildings lose $0.016 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
How is Wolfville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Wolfville A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Wolfville flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Wolfville; 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).