Photo: Nova Scotia Archives · Public domainYarmouth’s hazards at a glance: a low wildfire record and 6.2% of area homes over the radon guideline
Wildfire is rare near Yarmouth: 0.6% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.01% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Yarmouth as in most places, at $0.021 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Hazard risk gives Yarmouth a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Yarmouth’s hazards
For Yarmouth, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
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 A− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Yarmouth’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #26 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #689 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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 Yarmouth: 0.6% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0.5% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Yarmouth’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.01% a year keeps Yarmouth in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Forest fuel covers 51% of the land close to Yarmouth and 80% 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 90
In the upper half in Nova Scotia but far from Barrington (0.46%): Yarmouth ranks 42nd of 90, at 0.01% a year.
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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Yarmouth stays low, with 92%.
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
Flood studies whose area touches Yarmouth, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Yarmouth; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
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.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Yarmouth floods.
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 Yarmouth: $0.021 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 $0.021 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Yarmouth is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Yarmouth at $0.021 beside a median in Nova Scotia of $0.018, with Clare on top 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 63% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Yarmouth.
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 Yarmouth.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Some radon around Yarmouth: 6.2% of area homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the Zone 1 health region
The survey area of Yarmouth 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 Yarmouth (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.
26% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Yarmouth’s 5–10% band, which holds 37%.
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.
Health Canada advises testing every home, Yarmouth’s included, whatever the area’s figure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Yarmouth
Alerts for Yarmouth 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 Yarmouth 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)
How Yarmouth’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
Fire is heaviest around Argyle (moderate), against low for Yarmouth.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Yarmouth faces
What to do about the hazards Yarmouth 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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Yarmouth takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Yarmouth, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Yarmouth’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’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 Yarmouth.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Yarmouth
How big is the earthquake risk in Yarmouth?
About $0.021 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Yarmouth.
Is radon a problem in Yarmouth?
In Health Canada’s survey, 6.2% of 97 homes tested in Yarmouth’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Is Yarmouth at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0.6% of the land within 25 km of Yarmouth has burned since 1986, the last in 2024, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Yarmouth’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Yarmouth A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Yarmouth flood?
Nothing is listed for Yarmouth on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
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).