Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Hazard risk in Glencoe is lower than in 90% of Canadian towns
For Glencoe, wildfire history is close to nil: 0% of nearby land since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk in Glencoe sits near the middle: $0.020 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 1.8% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Glencoe grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Glencoe’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Glencoe: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Glencoe faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Glencoe grades A for hazard risk
Two inputs always count for Glencoe, earthquakes and radon; the third, wildfire, counts only against a town.
Its place: #43 of 866 in Ontario and #347 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 Glencoe: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Glencoe’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Around Glencoe fire takes 0.000% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
Forest makes up 0.2% of the land within 5 km of Glencoe and 0.2% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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 Glencoe, 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Glencoe, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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.
Glencoe is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by St. Clair Region Conservation Authority
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Glencoe: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Glencoe the inventory points to St. Clair Region Conservation Authority’s 2009 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCRCA Floodplain Estimation Study for Ontario Regulation 171-06 | St. Clair Region Conservation Authority | 2009 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Glencoe 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.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Glencoe.
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 Glencoe: $0.020 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Glencoe’s ground: $0.020 against a typical $0.030, 0.7 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Glencoe’s $0.020 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.
Glencoe sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 64% expect more shaking damage.
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 Glencoe’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).
Little radon around Glencoe: 1.8% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Glencoe’s survey area reads 1.8% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Fewer homes top the guideline around Glencoe (1.8%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%).
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Glencoe is in the lowest band, with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns: under 5% of tests over the guideline, while 63% have more.
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 Glencoe 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). · Not measured by town: radon tests (the Middlesex-London Health Unit)
Weather and fire alerts for Glencoe
Alerts for Glencoe 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 Glencoe 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)
How Glencoe’s neighbours compare on hazards
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glencoe | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | Yes |
| Brooke-Alvinston 2,557 · 16 km | Low | $0.018 | 8.4% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Brooke-Alvinston (low), still no more than Glencoe (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Glencoe faces
What to do about the hazards Glencoe 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
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Glencoe 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 Glencoe.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Glencoe’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Glencoe’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Glencoe
Is radon a problem in Glencoe?
In Health Canada’s survey, 1.8% of 110 homes tested in Glencoe’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Glencoe’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Glencoe A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Glencoe?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Glencoe $0.020 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Does Glencoe flood?
There is flood mapping for Glencoe on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
Is Glencoe at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Glencoe’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its 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).