A flood study covers Red Hill: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Hamilton Conservation Authority
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Red Hill’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Seismic risk in Red Hill sits near the middle: $0.044 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon around Red Hill is ordinary for Canada: 5% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Red Hill a grade of B+, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Red Hill’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Red Hill: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Red Hill faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Red Hill grades B+ for hazard risk
The grade weighs Red Hill’s seismic risk and radon equally, and wildfire is one-sided: a high band counts against a town, a low one earns nothing.
Its place: #494 of 866 in Ontario and #1,255 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.
Few fires near Red Hill: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Red Hill’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Red Hill burns at 0.000% a year, low against 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Around Red Hill the forest is thin or far off: 0.2% of the land within 5 km and 0.7% 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 Red Hill, 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%; Red Hill, 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.
Hamilton Conservation Authority has mapped flooding for Red Hill (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Red Hill: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
For Red Hill the inventory points to Hamilton Conservation Authority’s 2025 study, whose map is the one to check.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hill Creek | Hamilton Conservation Authority | 2025 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Red Hill has one too.
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 Red Hill.
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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Red Hill $0.044 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Earthquake losses in Red Hill, $0.044 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (1.5 times).
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of Hamilton, Red Hill included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Shaking damage around Red Hill runs at $0.044 a year, near the $0.043 of the typical town in Ontario; 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.
More earthquake risk than most: only 32% of Canada’s 2,611 towns are above Red Hill.
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 Red Hill’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 Red Hill are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the City of Hamilton Health Unit
At 5% over the guideline, the area around Red Hill is about level with the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The median in Ontario is 4% over 200 Bq/m³; the survey area around Red Hill has 5%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Red Hill 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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Red Hill 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 Red Hill
Alerts for Red Hill 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Red Hill to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Red Hill
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hill | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Vincent 10,011 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Rosedale 3,070 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Glenview West 3,431 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Corman 6,566 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Albion 4,585 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
| Bartonville 4,311 · 2.2 km | Low | $0.044 | 5% | Yes |
Red Hill’s low band tops its neighbours; Vincent is next (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Red Hill faces
What to do about the hazards Red Hill 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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Red Hill 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 Red Hill.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Red Hill’s figure is its subdivision’s.
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Red Hill’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Red Hill
Is radon a problem in Red Hill?
In Health Canada’s survey, 5% of 100 homes tested in Red Hill’s area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
How is Red Hill’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Red Hill grades B+ for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
Does Red Hill flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Red Hill; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Red Hill?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Red Hill $0.044 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is Red Hill at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Red Hill since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
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).