Photo: Adam Jones, Ph.D. · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Tuktoyaktuk: 1 on record, latest by Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Environment and Climate Change
Wildfire is rare near Tuktoyaktuk: 0.5% of the land within 25 km has burned since 1986, a burn rate of 0.01% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.19 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon is about average around Tuktoyaktuk: 5.4% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Tuktoyaktuk grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Tuktoyaktuk’s hazards
For Tuktoyaktuk, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Tuktoyaktuk faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Tuktoyaktuk: C+
Seismic risk and radon set Tuktoyaktuk’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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 Tuktoyaktuk has burned: 3.3% within 5 km, 0.5% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Tuktoyaktuk’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.01% a year keeps Tuktoyaktuk in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Little near Tuktoyaktuk’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 0.3% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 0.4% 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 the Northwest Territories · highest of 4
In the lower half in the Northwest Territories: Tuktoyaktuk at 0.01% a year, 4th of 4, far from Hay River’s 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Tuktoyaktuk 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.
A flood study covers Tuktoyaktuk, from Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Environment and Climate Change: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Tuktoyaktuk, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Environment and Climate Change studied flooding in an area that includes Tuktoyaktuk (1988); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuktoyaktuk | Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Environment and Climate Change | 1988 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Tuktoyaktuk has a flood study on file, as 58% of Canada’s towns do.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood mapping is shown for Tuktoyaktuk to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Tuktoyaktuk $0.19 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Tuktoyaktuk’s $0.19 is about 6.5 times the typical town’s $0.030: it sits in one of Canada’s more active seismic zones.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Canada’s median, $0.030, is the yardstick for Tuktoyaktuk ($0.19): there are too few towns in the Northwest Territories for one of their own.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
More earthquake risk than most: only 12% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Tuktoyaktuk.
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 Tuktoyaktuk 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).
5.4% of homes tested around Tuktoyaktuk are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of Tuktoyaktuk reads 5.4%, a shade from 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 Tuktoyaktuk, 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.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Tuktoyaktuk’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.
Whatever Tuktoyaktuk’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 Tuktoyaktuk
Alerts for Tuktoyaktuk 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 Tuktoyaktuk 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)
Get ready for what Tuktoyaktuk faces
Practical steps for Tuktoyaktuk’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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. For Tuktoyaktuk, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Tuktoyaktuk floods.
- 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 Tuktoyaktuk sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Tuktoyaktuk’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Tuktoyaktuk
How is Tuktoyaktuk’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Tuktoyaktuk grades C+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Tuktoyaktuk?
Expected earthquake damage in Tuktoyaktuk comes to $0.19 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Is Tuktoyaktuk at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Tuktoyaktuk’s band is low, with 0.5% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Is radon a problem in Tuktoyaktuk?
5.4% of the 185 homes Health Canada tested around Tuktoyaktuk topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Tuktoyaktuk flood?
Tuktoyaktuk’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
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).