Photo: Daniel Case · CC BY-SA 3.0On hazards, Inuvik comes out behind 96% of Canadian towns
Fire is a regular visitor: 12% of the land within 25 km of Inuvik has burned since 1986 (0.32% a year). Seismic risk runs high: $0.068 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon around Inuvik is ordinary for Canada: 5.4% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Inuvik a grade of D−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Inuvik’s hazards
For Inuvik, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Inuvik faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Inuvik grades D− for hazard risk
The grade weighs Inuvik’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: #2,549 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.
0% of the land near Inuvik’s homes has burned since 1986, 12% within 25 km
Past fire around Inuvik’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.32% of the land a year, Inuvik’s burn rate is high, many times the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
Since 1986 the nearest fire to Inuvik’s homes came within 6.9 km, never inside 5 km.
Within 5 km of Inuvik, 38% of the land is forest fuel; widen the ring to 25 km and it is 46%.
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 the Northwest Territories · highest of 3
At 0.32% a year, Inuvik is near the top in the Northwest Territories: 2nd of 3, behind Hay River (2.24%).
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.
Just 1.9% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough for the high band where Inuvik sits; 0.2% burn faster.
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 Inuvik
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Inuvik: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
There is no study for Inuvik on the national flood inventory, which is far from complete.
Towns with a flood study on file
No inventory study touches Inuvik, where 58% of Canadian towns have one.
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 Inuvik.
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.”
High seismic risk in Inuvik: $0.068 per $1,000 of buildings a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.068 per $1,000, Inuvik carries roughly 2.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Inuvik’s $0.068 is measured against Canada’s median of $0.030, since few towns in the Northwest Territories reach 2,500 people.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
29% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Inuvik, which places it in the upper third.
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 Inuvik 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).
Some radon around Inuvik: 5.4% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
At 5.4% over the guideline, the area around Inuvik is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
No median in the Northwest Territories to compare with, the territory having too few towns; around Inuvik, 0.5% of tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Inuvik is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% have more.
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 Inuvik’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). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Northwest Territories health region
Where to get warnings in Inuvik
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Inuvik; 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 Inuvik come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Inuvik faces
What to do about the hazards Inuvik faces, and what to ask before you buy.
- Clear needles and wood nearby.
- Keep a grab-and-go bag ready.
- In smoke, stay in; filter air.
- 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.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- How close is the forest edge?
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Inuvik is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Inuvik.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Inuvik’s included.
- 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 Inuvik.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Inuvik
Is Inuvik at risk of wildfire?
Yes, by Canadian standards: Inuvik’s band is high, with 12% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2023), so wildfire counts against its Risk grade.
How is Inuvik’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Inuvik grades D− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Inuvik flood?
Nothing is listed for Inuvik on the national inventory (0); local maps may still exist with the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Inuvik?
In Health Canada’s survey, 5.4% of 185 homes tested in Inuvik’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How big is the earthquake risk in Inuvik?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Inuvik $0.068 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).