Photo: Andrew Thomas from Shrewsbury, UK · CC BY-SA 2.0Hazards in Yarmouth: wildfire low, radon over the guideline in 6.2% of tested homes
Burn scars are few around Yarmouth, with 1.9% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.05% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Yarmouth as in most places, at $0.031 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Yarmouth grades B+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Yarmouth’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Yarmouth: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Yarmouth faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Yarmouth grades B+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Yarmouth’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #35 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #937 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 Yarmouth: 1.9% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.2% within 5 km
Past fire around Yarmouth’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Yarmouth burns at 0.05% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
There is forest near Yarmouth’s homes (77% within 5 km) and more of it further out (83% 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
Yarmouth sits mid-table in Nova Scotia: 25th of 90 towns, at 0.05% a year, well behind Barrington (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.
Yarmouth 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 Yarmouth
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Yarmouth: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
NRCan’s inventory is silent on Yarmouth, so any flood map would be the municipality’s own.
Towns with a flood study on file
Yarmouth has no flood study on file, though 88% of towns in Nova Scotia do (Canada: 58%).
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 Yarmouth.
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.”
Ordinary seismic risk in Yarmouth: $0.031 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Yarmouth’s $0.031 matches the typical town’s $0.030.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Nova Scotia: Yarmouth’s $0.031 against a median of $0.018, with Clare 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.
Yarmouth’s earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 48% 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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Yarmouth’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
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 Yarmouth: 6.2% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Near the middle for radon: Yarmouth’s area 6.2%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%. Figures for radon tests are published for the Zone 1 health region as a whole, not for Yarmouth alone.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Below the typical town in Nova Scotia (13%) at 6.2%, the area around Yarmouth still had 2.1% of tests over 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Yarmouth’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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 Yarmouth 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 Yarmouth
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Yarmouth; 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 Yarmouth, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Yarmouth’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
The heaviest fire record nearby is Argyle’s, moderate to Yarmouth’s low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Yarmouth faces
Practical steps for Yarmouth’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
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Yarmouth.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Yarmouth’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Yarmouth is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Yarmouth’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Yarmouth
Is Yarmouth at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Yarmouth’s low band (1.9% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
Is radon a problem in Yarmouth?
The area’s survey found 6.2% of 97 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Yarmouth.
How big is the earthquake risk in Yarmouth?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Yarmouth $0.031 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Yarmouth flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Yarmouth, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How is Yarmouth’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Yarmouth grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers 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).