Photo: Ansgar Walk · CC BY-SA 2.5Few places are as safe from hazards as Baker Lake: it beats almost every Canadian town
Wildfire barely registers for Baker Lake, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% 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). Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Baker Lake grades A+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Baker Lake’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Baker Lake: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Baker Lake faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Baker Lake grades A+ for hazard risk
For Baker Lake, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Only 78 homes were tested in the survey area, so the radon share is rough. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Baker Lake: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Baker Lake’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Baker Lake burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Only 0% of the land within 25 km of Baker Lake is forest fuel, and 0% close in.
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).
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Baker Lake sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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.
The flood map inventory lists nothing for Baker Lake
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Baker Lake: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Nationally, Baker Lake has no listed flood study; the municipality is the place to ask.
Towns with a flood study on file
Baker Lake 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.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Baker Lake 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.”
Little shaking expected in Baker Lake: $0.003 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Shaking costs the typical town $0.030 a year; in Baker Lake it is only $0.003, 0.1 times as much.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Baker Lake’s $0.003 is measured against Canada’s median of $0.030, since few towns in Nunavut 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.
Nearly every one of Canada’s 2,611 towns (99%) expects more shaking damage than Baker Lake.
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).
The model counts damage to Baker Lake’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Baker Lake: 0% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Nunavut health region: radon tests
Baker Lake’s area, at 0%, is below the 6.6% of the typical Canadian town, though any one home can still be high.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
With only a few towns in Nunavut, there is no local median to set Baker Lake’s 0% against, so the bars use Canada’s.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Baker Lake shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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.
The share describes the area, not a house: in Baker Lake as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Baker Lake
Alerts for Baker Lake 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Baker Lake are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Baker Lake faces
Practical steps for Baker Lake’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. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Baker Lake without grading them.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Baker Lake until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Baker Lake’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Baker Lake’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Baker Lake
How is Baker Lake’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Baker Lake’s Hazard risk grade is A+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Baker Lake?
The area’s survey found 0% of 78 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Baker Lake.
Does Baker Lake flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Baker Lake, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
How big is the earthquake risk in Baker Lake?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Baker Lake’s buildings lose $0.003 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Baker Lake at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Baker Lake (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
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).