Photo: Andrea_44 from Leamington, Ontario , Canada · CC BY 2.0A flood study covers Essex: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Essex Region Conservation Authority / County of Essex
Little of the land around Essex has burned: 0.1% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.004% a year. Seismic risk in Essex sits near the middle: $0.019 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is higher than usual: 14% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Essex grades C+ for hazard risk, with wildfire counted against it.
What stands out about Essex’s hazards
For Essex, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Essex faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Essex grades C+ for hazard risk
The grade weighs Essex’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: #697 of 866 in Ontario and #1,885 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 Essex has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0.1% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Essex’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Around Essex fire takes 0.004% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 15 km from Essex’s homes, none within 5 km.
Around Essex the forest is thin or far off: 0.2% of the land within 5 km and 0.3% 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
At 0.004% a year, Essex is near the top in Ontario: 45th 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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Essex stays low, with 92%.
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 Essex, from Essex Region Conservation Authority / County of Essex: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Essex, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Essex Region Conservation Authority / County of Essex studied flooding in an area that includes Essex (2024); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essex Region | Essex Region Conservation Authority / County of Essex | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Essex included, beside 58% across Canada.
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 Essex 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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Essex: $0.019 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.
Essex’s $0.019 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.6 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Essex’s $0.019 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.
Earthquakes cost less around Essex than in 66% of Canada’s 2,611 towns.
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 Essex.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Test for radon in Essex: 14% of area homes were over the 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 Essex’s area, at 14%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Essex’s area, at 14%, 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.
More high tests than most: Essex sits in a band that only 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share, with 4.6% 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.
A low area share in Essex 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). · Data for radon tests covers the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit
Where to get warnings in Essex
Alerts for Essex 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 Essex to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Essex
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essex | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
| Kingsville 25,302 · 13 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
| Amherstburg 27,509 · 16 km | Low | $0.019 | 14% | Yes |
Amherstburg burns a little more than Essex, 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 Essex faces
What to do about the hazards Essex 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
- 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 Essex floods.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Essex, 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. The radon share comes from about 14,000 long-term home tests in 2009–2011, pooled for now by the 2007 health region Essex sits in.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Essex’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Essex
How big is the earthquake risk in Essex?
Expected earthquake damage in Essex comes to $0.019 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Essex flood?
Essex’s area has been studied for flooding, and the owner’s map shows which streets lie in a zone; the grade leaves flood out.
Is Essex at risk of wildfire?
Fire has reached 0.1% of the land around Essex since 1986 (last in 2010); at low, it neither helps nor hurts the grade.
How is Essex’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Essex C+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Is radon a problem in Essex?
Around Essex, 195 survey homes were tested and 14% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
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).