Photo: K Danko · CC BY-SA 3.0High radon around Gananoque: 19% of homes tested in the area exceed 200 Bq/m³
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Gananoque’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). NRCan expects $0.040 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Gananoque, near the typical $0.030. Gananoque grades C− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Gananoque’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Gananoque: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Gananoque faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Gananoque: C−
Two inputs always count for Gananoque, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #846 of 866 in Ontario and #2,392 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: The seismic figure is a long-run average from NRCan’s model, not a prediction. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Few fires near Gananoque: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Gananoque’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Gananoque is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Little near Gananoque’s homes can carry a forest fire; only 3.9% of the land within 5 km is forest fuel, and 4.9% 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
Sioux Lookout has the highest burn rate in Ontario, 0.16% a year; around Gananoque, 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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Gananoque sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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 Gananoque, from Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Gananoque, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Gananoque, Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority’s from 2024, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority from Kingston to Brockville | Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority | 2024 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario: 69% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Gananoque is among them.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Gananoque’s homes stand in a flood zone.
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 Gananoque: $0.040 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Nothing unusual about Gananoque’s ground: $0.040 against a typical $0.030, 1.3 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Neither high nor low in Ontario: Gananoque’s $0.040 sits by the median of $0.043, while Alexandria reaches $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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Gananoque (43%).
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 Gananoque’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).
Test for radon in Gananoque: 19% of area homes were over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit: radon tests
A higher share than most: 19% of tested homes around Gananoque, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Gananoque (19%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%); 1.9% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Gananoque, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go higher.
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 survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Gananoque can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Gananoque
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Gananoque; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Gananoque come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Gananoque’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gananoque | Low | $0.040 | 19% | Yes |
| Leeds and the Thousand Islands 10,185 · 12 km | Low | $0.056 | 19% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Gananoque (low), with Leeds and the Thousand Islands next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Gananoque faces
What to do about the hazards Gananoque 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. Shaking damage is modelled from the ground, the buildings and the odds of each quake, and published for whole subdivisions such as Gananoque’s.
- Radon is a survey. Radon figures pool the survey’s home tests by area: postal areas once their boundaries arrive, the 2007 health region around Gananoque until then.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Gananoque’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Gananoque without grading them.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Gananoque
Is radon a problem in Gananoque?
Around Gananoque, 108 survey homes were tested and 19% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Gananoque at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Gananoque’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
Does Gananoque flood?
A flood study covers Gananoque on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Gananoque?
About $0.040 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Gananoque.
How is Gananoque’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Gananoque grades C− for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
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).