Photo: Northern Pix - https://www.flickr.com/people/northernpix/ · CC BY 2.0Few places are as safe from hazards as Kugaaruk: it beats 94% of Canadian towns
Fire has left almost no mark near Kugaaruk: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Earthquake risk in Kugaaruk is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.023 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 0% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Kugaaruk grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Kugaaruk’s hazards
For Kugaaruk, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Kugaaruk faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Kugaaruk grades A for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Kugaaruk’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 radon share rests on 78 home tests in the survey area, so a few homes move it. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Kugaaruk has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Kugaaruk’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Kugaaruk each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
Around Kugaaruk the forest is thin or far off: 0% of the land within 5 km and 0% within 25 km is forest fuel.
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 Kugaaruk 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 Kugaaruk
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Kugaaruk: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
An empty entry for Kugaaruk on the inventory isn’t proof of safety; ask locally for flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Kugaaruk 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.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Kugaaruk’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Kugaaruk $0.023 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Kugaaruk’s ground: $0.023 against a typical $0.030, 0.8 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Kugaaruk’s $0.023 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 54% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Kugaaruk.
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 Kugaaruk 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).
Radon runs low around Kugaaruk: 0% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Nunavut health region
A lower share than most: 0% of tested homes around Kugaaruk, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
With only a few towns in Nunavut, there is no local median to set Kugaaruk’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: Kugaaruk 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.
Whatever Kugaaruk’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).
Where to get warnings in Kugaaruk
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Kugaaruk; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Kugaaruk, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Kugaaruk faces
Practical steps for Kugaaruk’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
- 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 Kugaaruk sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Kugaaruk’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Kugaaruk, 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 Kugaaruk floods.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kugaaruk
Does Kugaaruk flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Kugaaruk (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Kugaaruk?
0% of the 78 homes Health Canada tested around Kugaaruk topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Kugaaruk at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Kugaaruk (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How is Kugaaruk’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Kugaaruk A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Kugaaruk?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Kugaaruk $0.023 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).