![Boucherie J. B. Castonguay à Hawkesbury . - [1920]](https://images.townratings.com/ca/town_images/53502008/621db0eab275871c1af8.jpg)
Photo: Unknown Unknown · Public domainA flood study covers Hawkesbury: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from South Nation Conservation
Little of the land around Hawkesbury has burned: 0% within 25 km since 1986, or 0.001% a year. Earthquakes add more: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.16 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. About as many homes carry radon around Hawkesbury as elsewhere, 6.1% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hawkesbury grades C+ for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Hawkesbury’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Hawkesbury: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Hawkesbury faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hawkesbury grades C+ for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Hawkesbury’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #701 of 866 in Ontario and #1,890 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 Hawkesbury: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Hawkesbury’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Around Hawkesbury fire takes 0.001% of the land in a typical year, the typical Canadian town 0.000%, which is low.
5.2% of the land within 5 km of Hawkesbury is forest fuel, close to the 10% within 25 km.
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 burns fastest in Ontario at 0.16% a year; Hawkesbury, at 0.001%, ranks 83rd of 871.
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.
7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns burn fast enough to rank moderate or above; Hawkesbury stays low, with 92%.
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.
South Nation Conservation has mapped flooding for Hawkesbury (1 study)
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Hawkesbury: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Hawkesbury is South Nation Conservation ’s, dated 2016; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delineating Flood Hazard and Associated Impacts in the Hawkesbury Creek Watershed | South Nation Conservation | 2016 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Hawkesbury is one of the 69% of towns in Ontario with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Hawkesbury.
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.
Shaking is Hawkesbury’s costliest hazard: $0.16 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Roughly 5.2 times the typical $0.030: Hawkesbury’s $0.16 marks real seismic exposure.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Above the middle in Ontario: Hawkesbury’s $0.16 against a median of $0.043, with Alexandria 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.
Hawkesbury sits above most of Canada’s 2,611 towns on earthquake risk; 15% 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).
The model counts damage to Hawkesbury’s buildings and their occupants from shaking only: not liquefaction, landslides, tsunami or fires after a quake.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Radon about average around Hawkesbury: 6.1% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Hawkesbury’s area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 6.1% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Hawkesbury (6.1%) than in the typical town in Ontario (4%); 1% went over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns share Hawkesbury’s band of 5 to 10%; 26% sit 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.
The survey sampled homes around Hawkesbury; it can’t tell you your basement’s level.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests published for the The Eastern Ontario Health Unit, not by town
Weather and fire alerts for Hawkesbury
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Hawkesbury; 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 Hawkesbury, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Hawkesbury’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawkesbury | Low | $0.16 | 6.1% | Yes |
| Grenville 1,889 · 2.6 km | Low | $0.12 | 10% | None listed |
| Grenville-sur-la-Rouge 3,040 · 5.4 km | Low | $0.093 | 10% | None listed |
| Vankleek Hill 9,321 · 5.9 km | Low | $0.16 | 6.1% | Yes |
| East Hawkesbury 3,787 · 13 km | Low | $0.20 | 6.1% | None listed |
| Brownsburg-Chatham 8,466 · 17 km | Low | $0.12 | 10% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Hawkesbury has the most fire on record (low); Grenville follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Hawkesbury faces
Practical steps for Hawkesbury’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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap the water heater down.
- Keep 72 hours of supplies.
- Has it had a radon test?
- Check the address on the flood map.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
- Is earthquake cover included?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Hawkesbury’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Hawkesbury is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Hawkesbury’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Hawkesbury.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Hawkesbury
Is radon a problem in Hawkesbury?
The area’s survey found 6.1% of 99 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Hawkesbury.
Does Hawkesbury flood?
There is flood mapping for Hawkesbury on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Hawkesbury’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hawkesbury’s Hazard risk grade is C+, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is Hawkesbury at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Hawkesbury’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2024) is short of the level that counts.
How big is the earthquake risk in Hawkesbury?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Hawkesbury’s buildings lose $0.16 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
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).