Photo: Jfvoll · CC BY-SA 4.0Drayton is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Grand River Conservation Authority
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Drayton’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Drayton as in most places, at $0.017 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). More homes than usual carry radon here, 11% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Drayton grades B for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Drayton’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Drayton: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Drayton faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Drayton grades B for hazard risk
The grade weighs Drayton’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #635 of 866 in Ontario and #1,504 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 Drayton: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Drayton’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Drayton in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Little near Drayton’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 2.7% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 4.3% 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
Little or nothing burns around Drayton in a typical year; 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario share that, and Sioux Lookout leads 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.
Most of the country’s 2,610 towns are low-band (92%, against 7.5% above); around Drayton, burning rounds to zero.
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.
A flood study covers Drayton, from Grand River Conservation Authority: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Drayton: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Grand River Conservation Authority holds the flood mapping that covers Drayton (2018), linked below.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand River Regulatory Floodplain | Grand River Conservation Authority | 2018 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Drayton has one too.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Drayton.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Drayton $0.017 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
With $0.017 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Drayton is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.6 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Drayton’s $0.017 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.
70% of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Drayton.
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).
The loss is to Drayton’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon runs high around Drayton: 11% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Measured across the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Unit: radon tests
A higher share than most: 11% of tested homes around Drayton, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Drayton’s area, at 11%, is above the median in Ontario (4%), and 2% 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.
4.6% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Drayton, 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.
One home in Drayton can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Drayton
Alerts for Drayton 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Drayton to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Drayton faces
What to do about the hazards Drayton 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
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Drayton’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Drayton is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Drayton.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Drayton’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Drayton
Is Drayton at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Drayton (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
How is Drayton’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Drayton grades B for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Drayton flood?
There is flood mapping for Drayton on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Drayton?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Drayton $0.017 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Drayton?
In Health Canada’s survey, 11% of 99 homes tested in Drayton’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
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).