Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Flood mapping exists for Greater Napanee: 1 on record, latest by Quinte Conservation
Fire has left almost no mark near Greater Napanee: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.042 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Greater Napanee, near the typical $0.030. In Health Canada’s survey, 11% of homes tested in the area exceeded 200 Bq/m³ (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Greater Napanee a grade of C, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Greater Napanee’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Greater Napanee: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Greater Napanee faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Greater Napanee: C
Earthquake risk and radon make Greater Napanee’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #826 of 866 in Ontario and #2,057 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 Greater Napanee: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Greater Napanee’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Greater Napanee at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
About as much forest grows next to Greater Napanee’s homes (17% within 5 km) as across 25 km (18%).
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
Of the 871 towns in Ontario, 638 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Greater Napanee among them; Sioux Lookout leads at 0.16% a year.
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%; Greater Napanee, 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.
Quinte Conservation has mapped flooding for Greater Napanee (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Greater Napanee, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
One study on the inventory touches Greater Napanee, Quinte Conservation’s from 2024, and its area can be large, so it says a map exists, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Selby Creek | Quinte Conservation | 2024 | under review |
Towns with a flood study on file
Flood maps are common in Ontario: 69% of towns have one, against 58% nationally, and Greater Napanee 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 Greater Napanee’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.
Ordinary seismic risk in Greater Napanee: $0.042 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.
Greater Napanee’s $0.042 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (1.4 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Typical for its province: Greater Napanee at $0.042 beside a median in Ontario of $0.043, with Alexandria on top 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 43% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Greater Napanee.
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 Greater Napanee’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).
11% of homes tested around Greater Napanee are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Health Unit: radon tests
More homes than usual test high around Greater Napanee: 11% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Greater Napanee, 11% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1% 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.
Greater Napanee 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.
One home in Greater Napanee can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Greater Napanee
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Greater Napanee; 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. |
In fire season, check CWFIS for danger and active fires around Greater Napanee, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Greater Napanee’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greater Napanee | Low | $0.042 | 11% | Yes |
| Deseronto 1,844 · 7.8 km | Low | $0.035 | 12% | Yes |
| Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory 3,028 · 16 km | Low | $0.043 | 12% | Yes |
| Tyendinaga 5,005 · 17 km | Low | $0.041 | 12% | Yes |
Fire is no heavier anywhere nearby than around Greater Napanee (low), with Deseronto next at low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Greater Napanee faces
Practical steps for Greater Napanee’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
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Greater Napanee takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Greater Napanee.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Greater Napanee’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Greater Napanee’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Greater Napanee
Does Greater Napanee flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Greater Napanee; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is Greater Napanee at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Greater Napanee since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
How is Greater Napanee’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Greater Napanee grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Is radon a problem in Greater Napanee?
The area’s survey found 11% of 99 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Greater Napanee.
How big is the earthquake risk in Greater Napanee?
About $0.042 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Greater Napanee.
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).