Photo: Cindy Funk · CC BY 2.0Goderich is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Maitland Valley Conservation Authority
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Goderich, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. Seismic risk runs low: $0.008 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. More homes than usual carry radon here, 11% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Goderich grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Goderich’s hazards
For Goderich, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Goderich faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Goderich: B+
Earthquake risk and radon make Goderich’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #487 of 866 in Ontario and #1,088 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Few fires near Goderich: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Goderich’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The yearly burn rate around Goderich is 0.000%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Around Goderich the forest is thin or far off: 4.1% of the land within 5 km and 2.8% 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
Sioux Lookout has the highest burn rate in Ontario, 0.16% a year; around Goderich, 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.
Measured against 2,610 towns, Goderich is in the largest group, low (92%), and at its floor, while 7.5% rank higher.
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.
Goderich is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by Maitland Valley Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Goderich, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Goderich, Maitland Valley 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maitland Valley Shoreline Hazard Mapping Update (2023) | Maitland Valley Conservation Authority | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Goderich 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.
The grade leaves flood out, since a study area says nothing about how many of Goderich’s homes are at risk.
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.
Little shaking expected in Goderich: $0.008 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.
At $0.008 per $1,000, Goderich carries 0.3 times the typical Canadian town’s earthquake risk ($0.030): low.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.008, Goderich 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.
Earthquakes cost less around Goderich than in 87% 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 Goderich.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
11% of homes tested around Goderich are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Measured across the Huron County Health Unit: radon tests
At 11% over the guideline, the area around Goderich beats the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Goderich (11%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%); 0.9% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Goderich is in the 10–20% band, with 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; only 4.6% are 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.
Neighbouring homes in Goderich can differ a lot; only a long-term test tells you about yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Goderich
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Goderich; 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. |
For fires near Goderich, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Goderich’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goderich | Low | $0.008 | 11% | Yes |
| Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh 7,052 · 13 km | Low | $0.011 | 11% | Yes |
| Clinton 8,318 · 15 km | Low | $0.012 | 11% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh (low), still no more than Goderich (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Goderich faces
Practical steps for Goderich’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. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Goderich’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- Wildfire counts one way. For Goderich, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. The flood inventory points to maps; it is incomplete and not the official source, so ask the municipality about any street in Goderich.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Goderich takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Goderich
Does Goderich flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Goderich; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is Goderich at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Goderich since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
Is radon a problem in Goderich?
11% of the 106 homes Health Canada tested around Goderich topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Goderich?
Expected earthquake damage in Goderich comes to $0.008 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
How is Goderich’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Goderich B+, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).