Photo: P199 · Public domainFaraday is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Crowe Valley Conservation Authority
Around Faraday, wildfire is practically absent from the record: 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Shaking is about as much of a worry in Faraday as in most places, at $0.030 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). More homes than usual carry radon here, 12% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Faraday a grade of C+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Faraday’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Faraday: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Faraday faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Faraday grades C+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Faraday’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
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.
Few fires near Faraday: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Faraday’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Next to the typical Canadian town (0.000% a year), Faraday’s 0.000% is in the low band.
Forest thickens with distance from Faraday: 18% of the land within 5 km, 27% 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 872
To three decimals the burn rate around Faraday is zero, as for 639 of the 872 towns in Ontario, while Sioux Lookout reaches 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 Faraday, 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.
Faraday is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Crowe Valley Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Faraday, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Crowe Valley Conservation Authority studied flooding in an area that includes Faraday (2024); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chandos Lake FHIMP | Crowe Valley Conservation Authority | 2024 | under review · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Faraday 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.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Faraday.
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 Faraday $0.030 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Faraday’s $0.030 is the typical figure ($0.030): ordinary ground for Canada.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.030, Faraday 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.
Middle of the pack: 48% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Faraday.
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 model counts damage to Faraday’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
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 Faraday: 12% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Faraday’s survey area reads 12% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%. Nobody publishes radon tests for Faraday alone, so this card uses the figure for the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Faraday, 12% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 2% over 600, against a median of 4% in Ontario.
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 Faraday, 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 Faraday only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Faraday
Alerts for Faraday 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. |
Evacuation orders for Faraday come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Faraday’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faraday | Low | $0.030 | 12% | Yes |
| Bancroft 4,331 · 11 km | Low | $0.030 | 12% | None listed |
| Hastings Highlands 4,957 · 19 km | Low | $0.026 | 12% | None listed |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Faraday (low); Bancroft comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Faraday faces
Practical steps for Faraday’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
- Earthquakes are modelled. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Faraday’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Faraday’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Faraday 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 Faraday.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Faraday
Does Faraday flood?
There is flood mapping for Faraday on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is radon a problem in Faraday?
The area’s survey found 12% of 99 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Faraday.
How big is the earthquake risk in Faraday?
Expected earthquake damage in Faraday comes to $0.030 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Faraday’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Faraday’s Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Faraday at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Faraday (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
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).