Photo: DXR · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Kingston: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Kingston’s homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). For earthquakes Kingston is middling, $0.044 a year per $1,000 against $0.030 for the typical town. More homes than usual carry radon here, 11% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Kingston grades C for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Kingston’s hazards
For Kingston, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Kingston faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Kingston grades C for hazard risk
The grade weighs Kingston’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: #837 of 866 in Ontario and #2,075 of 2,589 Canadian towns.
How sure: Earthquake losses are a model’s expectation over many years, not a forecast for any one. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Kingston has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Kingston’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
The land within 25 km of Kingston burns at 0.000% a year on average, the low band; the typical Canadian town: 0.000%.
6.1% of the land within 5 km of Kingston is forest fuel, close to the 6.8% 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
Fire has taken almost none of the land around Kingston, as for 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario; Sioux Lookout tops the list at 0.16%.
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.
Kingston 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.
Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority has mapped flooding for Kingston (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Kingston, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
A 2024 study by Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority covers Kingston, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority from Kingston to Brockville | Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority | 2024 | final · not public |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Kingston 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.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Kingston.
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.
Expected shaking damage in Kingston: $0.044 a year per $1,000
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
1.5 times the typical $0.030: Kingston’s $0.044 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
About level with the typical town in Ontario: Kingston’s $0.044 against $0.043; Alexandria reaches $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.
Kingston 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).
For Kingston the model prices shaking damage to buildings, nothing more.
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 Kingston are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Radon tests for the Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Health Unit
Kingston’s survey area reads 11% over the guideline, well past the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
More homes top the guideline around Kingston (11%) 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.
One test in ten or more tops the guideline around Kingston, as in 22% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 4.6% go 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.
Whatever Kingston’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Where to get warnings in Kingston
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Kingston; 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 Kingston, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Kingston’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingston | Low | $0.044 | 11% | Yes |
| Loyalist 19,761 · 13 km | Low | $0.044 | 11% | None listed |
| Frontenac Islands 1,963 · 15 km | Low | $0.042 | 11% | Yes |
None of the places around has more fire nearby than Kingston (low); Loyalist comes closest (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Kingston faces
What to do about the hazards Kingston 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. For Kingston, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Kingston takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Kingston’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
- 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 Kingston.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Kingston
Is Kingston at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Kingston since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
Does Kingston flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Kingston; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
Is radon a problem in Kingston?
Around Kingston, 99 survey homes were tested and 11% came in over 200 Bq/m³, a guide to the area, not to any one home.
How big is the earthquake risk in Kingston?
About $0.044 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Kingston.
How is Kingston’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Kingston grades C for hazard risk, from earthquakes and radon, with wildfire counted only where it lowers the grade.
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).