Photo: TravelingOtter from Houston, Texas, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Yellowknife: it beats almost every Canadian town
Burn scars are few around Yellowknife, with 1.3% of the land within 25 km touched by fire since 1986 (0.03% a year). Shaking is less of a worry than in most places, at $0.003 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). In Health Canada’s survey, 5.4% of homes tested in Yellowknife’s area exceeded 200 Bq/m³, close to the typical 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Yellowknife a grade of A+; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Yellowknife’s hazards
For Yellowknife, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Yellowknife faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Yellowknife grades A+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Yellowknife with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #11 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.
Few fires near Yellowknife: 0% within 5 km, 1.3% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Yellowknife’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Yellowknife fire takes 0.03% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Fire has stayed at least 21 km from Yellowknife’s homes since 1986.
Forest fuel covers 75% of the land close to Yellowknife and 94% 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 the Northwest Territories · highest of 3
Hay River tops the 3 towns in the Northwest Territories at 2.24% a year; Yellowknife, at 0.03%, comes 3rd.
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.
Yellowknife 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 Yellowknife
Flood studies whose area touches Yellowknife, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Yellowknife, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Yellowknife has no flood study on file; 58% of Canada’s towns have one.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Yellowknife’s homes are at risk.
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.”
Low seismic risk in Yellowknife: $0.003 per $1,000 of buildings a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Yellowknife’s $0.003 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.1 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
With too few towns in the Northwest Territories for a median of their own, Yellowknife is set beside Canada’s: $0.003 against $0.030.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nearly every one of Canada’s 2,611 towns (99%) expects more shaking damage than Yellowknife.
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 Yellowknife 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).
Radon about average around Yellowknife: 5.4% over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Northwest Territories health region: radon tests
The survey area of Yellowknife 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 Yellowknife, 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.
A middling share of high tests puts Yellowknife 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.
A low area share in Yellowknife doesn’t clear a house, nor does a high one condemn it: test.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Yellowknife
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Yellowknife; 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 Yellowknife 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 Yellowknife faces
What to do about the hazards Yellowknife 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
- Wildfire counts one way. For Yellowknife, 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. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Yellowknife.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Yellowknife’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Yellowknife takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Yellowknife
Is radon a problem in Yellowknife?
In Health Canada’s survey, 5.4% of 185 homes tested in Yellowknife’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Yellowknife’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Yellowknife’s Hazard risk grade is A+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Yellowknife at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 1.3% of the land within 25 km of Yellowknife has burned since 1986, the last in 2023, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How big is the earthquake risk in Yellowknife?
About $0.003 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Yellowknife.
Does Yellowknife flood?
Nothing is listed for Yellowknife 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).