Photo: P199 · Public domainA flood study covers Huron Shores: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from The Corporation of the Municipality of Huron Shores
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Huron Shores’ homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Earthquakes matter little: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.006 a year per $1,000 of value, against $0.030 for the typical town. Radon around Huron Shores is ordinary for Canada: 8.6% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Huron Shores grades A− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Huron Shores’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Huron Shores: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Huron Shores faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Huron Shores: A−
Risk averages earthquakes and radon; wildfire joins only where it pulls the average down, so a town like Huron Shores with little fire nearby would get no credit for it.
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 Huron Shores: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Past fire around Huron Shores’ homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
At 0.000% of the land a year, Huron Shores’ burn rate is in the low band; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%.
The closest burn since 1986 lies 13 km from Huron Shores’ homes, none within 5 km.
25% of the land within 5 km of Huron Shores is forest fuel, close to the 21% 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 872
Among the 872 towns in Ontario, Sioux Lookout burns fastest (0.16% a year); Huron Shores is with the 639 near 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.
Huron Shores shares the low band with 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, its burn rate rounding to nothing; 7.5% burn faster.
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.
Huron Shores is on the flood map inventory: 1 study, by The Corporation of the Municipality of Huron Shores
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Huron Shores: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2024 study by The Corporation of the Municipality of Huron Shores covers Huron Shores, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Huron Shores Floodplain Mapping Study | The Corporation of the Municipality of Huron Shores | 2024 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Huron Shores 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.
Flood is shown here, never graded: a study says where a map exists, not how many of Huron Shores’ 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.
Little shaking expected in Huron Shores: $0.006 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Huron Shores’ $0.006 is a fraction of the typical town’s $0.030 (0.2 times as much): quiet ground by Canadian standards.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Huron Shores, at $0.006, is below the median of $0.043.
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 Huron Shores than in 88% 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).
The model counts damage to Huron Shores’ 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 Huron Shores: 8.6% over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Source area for radon tests: the The District of Algoma Health Unit
Huron Shores’ area sits close to the typical Canadian town: 8.6% over the guideline, against 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Around Huron Shores, 8.6% of tests were over 200 Bq/m³ and 1.1% 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.
Huron Shores 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.
Basements, soil and how a house is sealed decide its radon, so in Huron Shores only a test can say.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Huron Shores
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Huron Shores; 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. |
Smoke and fire warnings for Huron Shores come through Environment Canada and Alert Ready; the fire map is CWFIS’s.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Huron Shores
Wildfire band, earthquake risk, radon and flood studies for each place nearby.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Huron Shores | Low | $0.006 | 8.6% | Yes |
| Thessalon 1,363 · 16 km | Low | $0.005 | 8.6% | Yes |
Thessalon burns a little more than Huron Shores, in the same low band (low here).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Huron Shores faces
What to do about the hazards Huron Shores 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. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Huron Shores is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
- 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 Huron Shores.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Huron Shores’ homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Huron Shores’.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Huron Shores
Is Huron Shores at risk of wildfire?
Less than most of Canada: 0% of the land within 25 km of Huron Shores has burned since 1986, the last in 1999, a low band that leaves Risk alone.
How is Huron Shores’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Huron Shores’ Hazard risk grade is A−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Huron Shores?
In Health Canada’s survey, 8.6% of 93 homes tested in Huron Shores’ area were above 200 Bq/m³, though only a test tells you about one house.
Does Huron Shores flood?
There is flood mapping for Huron Shores on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How big is the earthquake risk in Huron Shores?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Huron Shores’ buildings lose $0.006 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).