Photo: Matilde Park from Toronto, Canada · CC BY 2.0Flood mapping exists for Beamsville: 9 on record, latest by Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Beamsville, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). For earthquakes Beamsville is middling, $0.058 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. In Health Canada’s survey, just 2% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Beamsville a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Beamsville’s hazards
For Beamsville, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Beamsville faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Beamsville grades B+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Beamsville with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #463 of 866 in Ontario and #903 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.
Wildfire is rare near Beamsville: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Beamsville’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Beamsville is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Around Beamsville the forest is thin or far off: 0.3% of the land within 5 km and 0.6% 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).
Burn rate a year, towns in Ontario · highest of 871
Sioux Lookout has the highest burn rate in Ontario, 0.16% a year; around Beamsville, as around 638 of the 871 towns, it rounds to zero.
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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Beamsville, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
Beamsville is on the flood map inventory: 9 studies, latest by Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Beamsville: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Beamsville the inventory points to 9 studies, most recently Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority ’s in 2021.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Floodplain Mapping Update in the Towns of Grimsby and Lincoln | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2021 | final |
| Richardsons and Francis Creek,West St. Catharines | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2019 | final |
| Twenty Mile Creek | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2007 | final |
| Sixteen Mile Creek | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2007 | final |
| Gavora Ditch | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2006 | final |
| Spring Creek | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2006 | final |
| Eighteen Mile Creek | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2005 | final |
| FifteenMileCreek | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | final |
1 more studies on the inventory touch Beamsville.
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Beamsville has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Studies touching Beamsville run from the 2000s to the 2020s, with the most in the 2000s: 5 of 7.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Beamsville.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Beamsville’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Expected shaking damage in Beamsville: $0.058 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Beamsville’s ground: $0.058 against a typical $0.030, 1.9 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Ontario: Beamsville’s $0.058 against a median of $0.043, with Alexandria highest at $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.
Beamsville sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 30% are higher.
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 Beamsville 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 Beamsville: 2% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Niagara Regional Area Health Unit: radon tests
Beamsville’s area, at 2%, 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
Below the typical town in Ontario (4%) at 2%, the area around Beamsville still had 2% of tests over 600 Bq/m³.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon rarely tops the guideline around Beamsville, as for 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% see more.
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.
Neighbouring homes in Beamsville can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Beamsville
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Beamsville; 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 Beamsville come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Beamsville
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beamsville | Low | $0.058 | 2% | Yes |
| Grimsby 31,478 · 12 km | Low | $0.046 | 2% | Yes |
| Smithville 16,586 · 13 km | Low | $0.060 | 2% | Yes |
| St. Catharines 153,865 · 15 km | Low | $0.066 | 2% | Yes |
| Pelham 19,980 · 17 km | Low | $0.055 | 2% | Yes |
| Fifty Point 3,690 · 18 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Thorold 33,844 · 18 km | Low | $0.061 | 2% | Yes |
Beamsville’s low band tops its neighbours; Grimsby is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Beamsville faces
What to do about the hazards Beamsville 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?
- 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 Beamsville, 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 Beamsville 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 Beamsville sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Beamsville’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Beamsville
How is Beamsville’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Beamsville grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Beamsville?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Beamsville’s buildings lose $0.058 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Beamsville at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Beamsville (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
Is radon a problem in Beamsville?
In Health Canada’s survey, 2% of 100 homes tested in Beamsville’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Beamsville flood?
Beamsville’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).