Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0A flood study covers Algonquin Highlands: 3 on the national inventory, the newest from County of Haliburton
Wildfire barely registers for Algonquin Highlands, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). NRCan expects $0.021 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Algonquin Highlands, near the typical $0.030. Radon is about average around Algonquin Highlands: 6.1% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Hazard risk gives Algonquin Highlands a grade of A−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Algonquin Highlands’s hazards
For Algonquin Highlands, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Algonquin Highlands faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Algonquin Highlands grades A− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Algonquin Highlands’ grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #281 of 866 in Ontario and #679 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
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 Algonquin Highlands has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Algonquin Highlands’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The land within 25 km of Algonquin Highlands burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
Algonquin Highlands’ homes have had no fire within 5 km since 1986; the closest was 20 km away.
Forest fuel is spread evenly around Algonquin Highlands: 24% within 5 km, 22% 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 Ontario · highest of 871
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Algonquin Highlands, as for 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario; Sioux Lookout tops the list at 0.16%.
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.
Algonquin Highlands shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% 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.
Algonquin Highlands is on the flood map inventory: 3 studies, latest by County of Haliburton
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Algonquin Highlands: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Algonquin Highlands the inventory points to 3 studies, most recently County of Haliburton’s in 2024.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gull and Burnt River Watersheds within Haliburton County | County of Haliburton | 2024 | final |
| District of Muskoka Floodplain Mapping | District Municipality of Muskoka | 2024 | final |
| County of Haliburton Floodplain Mapping Project | Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Algonquin Highlands has one too.
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 Algonquin Highlands.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Algonquin Highlands: $0.021 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Algonquin Highlands’ $0.021 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.7 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Algonquin Highlands’ $0.021 against a median of $0.043; Alexandria has $0.21.
NRCan seismic risk model (2022): mean yearly building loss per $1,000 of value; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Algonquin Highlands sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 63% expect more shaking damage.
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 Algonquin Highlands 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 Algonquin Highlands: 6.1% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Heal health region: radon tests
6.1% of tested homes around Algonquin Highlands were over the guideline, much like the typical Canadian town at 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Algonquin Highlands’ area, at 6.1%, is above the median in Ontario (4%), and 1% of its tests passed 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Algonquin Highlands, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are 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.
A low area share in Algonquin Highlands 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 Algonquin Highlands
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Algonquin Highlands; 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. |
For fires near Algonquin Highlands, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Algonquin Highlands
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algonquin Highlands | Low | $0.021 | 6.1% | Yes |
| Minden Hills 7,841 · 18 km | Low | $0.024 | 6.1% | Yes |
Minden Hills burns a little more than Algonquin Highlands, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Algonquin Highlands faces
Practical steps for Algonquin Highlands’ 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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. For Algonquin Highlands, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- 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 Algonquin Highlands until then.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Algonquin Highlands’ census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Algonquin Highlands without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Algonquin Highlands
How is Algonquin Highlands’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Algonquin Highlands grades A− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Algonquin Highlands?
The area’s survey found 6.1% of 98 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Algonquin Highlands.
How big is the earthquake risk in Algonquin Highlands?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Algonquin Highlands’ buildings lose $0.021 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Does Algonquin Highlands flood?
A flood study covers Algonquin Highlands on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
Is Algonquin Highlands at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Algonquin Highlands’ low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
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).