Photo: Dillan Payne · CC BY-SA 2.0Colborne is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Lower Trent Region Conservation Authority
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Colborne, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.029 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Colborne, near the typical $0.030. Colborne’s survey area, 6.1% over the radon guideline, is close to the typical town’s 6.6%. Colborne grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Colborne’s hazards
For Colborne, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Colborne faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Colborne grades B+ for hazard risk
For Colborne, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
Its place: #464 of 866 in Ontario and #905 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 Colborne has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Colborne’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Fire claims 0.000% of the land around Colborne each year, a low band, with the typical Canadian town at 0.000%.
About as much forest grows next to Colborne’s homes (15% within 5 km) as across 25 km (13%).
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 Colborne, 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Colborne is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 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.
2 flood studies cover Colborne, the newest from Lower Trent Region Conservation Authority
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Colborne: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
2 studies on the inventory touch Colborne, the newest Lower Trent Region Conservation Authority’s from 2024, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colborne Creek | Lower Trent Region Conservation Authority | 2024 | final |
| Lake Ontario Shoreline Management Plan | Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority | 2020 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Colborne with 69% of towns in Ontario; Canada’s share is 58%.
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 Colborne 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.”
Natural Resources Canada, Canada Flood Map Inventory; links go to each study’s owner.
Expected shaking damage in Colborne: $0.029 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
At $0.029 per $1,000, Colborne’s earthquake risk is the typical Canadian town’s $0.030.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.029, Colborne is below the typical town in Ontario ($0.043); Alexandria is 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 51% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Colborne.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Colborne.
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 Colborne: 6.1% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Colborne’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 6.1% over the guideline, against 6.6%. For radon tests, the only official count covers all of the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Heal health region, Colborne included.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Colborne (6.1%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%); 1% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Radon tops the guideline in a modest share of homes around Colborne, a band holding 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% rank above.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Colborne, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Colborne
Alerts for Colborne 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 Colborne 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)
Hazards in the places around Colborne
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colborne | Low | $0.029 | 6.1% | Yes |
| Brighton 12,900 · 12 km | Low | $0.028 | 6.1% | Yes |
| Alnwick/Haldimand 8,197 · 16 km | Low | $0.026 | 6.1% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Colborne has the most fire on record (low); Brighton follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Colborne faces
Practical steps for Colborne’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
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Colborne.
- 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 Colborne floods.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Colborne’s included.
- 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 Colborne sits in.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Colborne
Is Colborne at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Colborne since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
Is radon a problem in Colborne?
6.1% of the 98 homes Health Canada tested around Colborne topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How is Colborne’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Colborne B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Colborne?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Colborne $0.029 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Colborne flood?
Colborne’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).