Barnstown is on Canada’s flood inventory: 2 listed, led by Hamilton Conservation Authority
Wildfire isn’t Barnstown’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquake risk in Barnstown is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.044 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. About as many homes carry radon around Barnstown as elsewhere, 5% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Barnstown grades B+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Barnstown’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Barnstown: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Barnstown faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Barnstown grades B+ for hazard risk
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Barnstown with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
Its place: #494 of 866 in Ontario and #1,255 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.
Wildfire is rare near Barnstown: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Barnstown’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Barnstown in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Only 0.9% of the land within 25 km of Barnstown is forest fuel, and 0.1% close in.
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 Barnstown, 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%; Barnstown, 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.
2 flood studies cover Barnstown, the newest from Hamilton Conservation Authority
Flood studies whose area touches Barnstown, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
2 studies on the inventory touch Barnstown, the newest Hamilton Conservation Authority’s from 2025, and their areas can be large, so they say maps exist, not that the town floods.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hill Creek | Hamilton Conservation Authority | 2025 | final |
| Twenty Mile Creek | Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority | 2007 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Its flood study puts Barnstown 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.
The 2 studies touching Barnstown are spread over time, from the 2000s to the 2020s.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Barnstown.
Flood studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Barnstown.
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 Barnstown: $0.044 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.
With $0.044 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Barnstown is about even with the typical $0.030 (1.5 times).
Barnstown doesn’t get its own earthquake risk figures; the ones here come from the city of Hamilton.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The median in Ontario is $0.043; Barnstown, at $0.044, is right beside it, and Alexandria tops the list 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.
Barnstown sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 32% are higher.
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).
Roads, pipes and bridges aren’t in Barnstown’s figure, nor landslides or tsunami: it is buildings and shaking.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
5% of homes tested around Barnstown are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
The survey area of Barnstown reads 5%, a shade from the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Barnstown than in most towns in Ontario: 5% against 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Barnstown is in the 5–10% band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% 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.
One home in Barnstown 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). · Radon tests: one figure for all of the City of Hamilton Health Unit
Weather and fire alerts for Barnstown
Alerts for Barnstown 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 Barnstown 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)
Hazards in the places around Barnstown
The same four hazards for the places next door.
Barnstown’s low band tops its neighbours; Butler is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Barnstown faces
What to do about the hazards Barnstown 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Barnstown’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Barnstown until then.
- Flood studies aren’t flood zones. Flood studies cover areas of every size, which is why the page lists them for Barnstown without grading them.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Barnstown’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Barnstown
Is radon a problem in Barnstown?
Around Barnstown, 100 survey homes were tested and 5% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
Is Barnstown at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Barnstown’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Barnstown?
Expected earthquake damage in Barnstown comes to $0.044 a year for each $1,000 that buildings are worth.
Does Barnstown flood?
A flood study covers Barnstown on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory; open the owner’s map to check a street, since flood isn’t graded.
How is Barnstown’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Barnstown’s Hazard risk grade is B+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).