Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Central Frontenac: 2 on record, latest by Quinte Conservation
The national fire record shows next to nothing around Central Frontenac, 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.001% a year). Seismic risk in Central Frontenac sits near the middle: $0.050 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. More homes than usual carry radon here, 11% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Central Frontenac a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Central Frontenac’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Central Frontenac: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Central Frontenac faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Central Frontenac grades C for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Central Frontenac’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #844 of 866 in Ontario and #2,105 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Central Frontenac: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Central Frontenac’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Central Frontenac’s 0.001% is in the low band.
No fire has burned within 5 km of Central Frontenac’s homes since 1986; the nearest burn is 20 km away.
Forest thickens with distance from Central Frontenac: 8.9% of the land within 5 km, 15% 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
At 0.001% a year, Central Frontenac is near the top in Ontario: 83rd of 871, behind Sioux Lookout (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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Central Frontenac reads low, with 92% of them; only 7.5% rank 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.
Flooding around Central Frontenac is mapped in 2 studies, the newest by Quinte Conservation
Flood studies whose area touches Central Frontenac, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Quinte Conservation and others have studied flooding in areas that include Central Frontenac: 2 studies, the latest from 2024.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Napanee River Lakes – Regulatory Floodplain Mapping | Quinte Conservation | 2024 | under review |
| Salmon River Upper Lakes | Quinte 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%; Central Frontenac has one too.
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 Central Frontenac’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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Ordinary seismic risk in Central Frontenac: $0.050 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.
With $0.050 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Central Frontenac is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Central Frontenac runs at $0.050 a year, near the $0.043 of the typical town in Ontario; 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.
In the upper part of Canada’s range: 31% of its 2,611 towns expect more damage than Central Frontenac.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Central Frontenac’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
11% of homes tested around Central Frontenac are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs above the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Central Frontenac’s area, at 11%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Central Frontenac than in most towns in Ontario: 11% over the guideline (4% is typical), 1% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Central Frontenac, in the 10–20% band with 22%.
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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Central Frontenac only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Health Unit
Weather and fire alerts for Central Frontenac
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Central Frontenac; 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 Central Frontenac, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Central Frontenac faces
Practical steps for Central Frontenac’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?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Central Frontenac is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Central Frontenac’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. NRCan’s inventory says where flood mapping exists, not where water goes; the map’s owner is the authority for Central Frontenac.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Central Frontenac’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Central Frontenac
How big is the earthquake risk in Central Frontenac?
About $0.050 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Central Frontenac.
Is radon a problem in Central Frontenac?
11% of the 99 homes Health Canada tested around Central Frontenac topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Central Frontenac flood?
There is flood mapping for Central Frontenac on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Central Frontenac at risk of wildfire?
Not much by Canadian standards: Central Frontenac’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (last in 2025), so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Central Frontenac’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Central Frontenac’s Hazard risk grade is C, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).