Alpine is on Canada’s flood inventory: 1 listed, led by Grand River Conservation Authority
Since 1986 almost nothing has burned near Alpine: 0% of the land within 25 km, or 0.000% a year. Earthquake risk in Alpine is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.022 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 4% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Alpine grades A− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Alpine’s hazards
For Alpine, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Alpine faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Alpine grades A− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Alpine’s grade; wildfire can only lower it, never raise it, and flood studies are listed but not scored.
Its place: #237 of 866 in Ontario and #594 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.
Wildfire is rare near Alpine: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Past fire around Alpine’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
In a typical year 0.000% of the land near Alpine burns; the typical Canadian town sees 0.000%, and both are low.
Around Alpine the forest is thin or far off: 1.1% of the land within 5 km and 3.2% 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
Among the 871 towns in Ontario, Sioux Lookout burns fastest (0.16% a year); Alpine is with the 638 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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Alpine sits at its very bottom; only 7.5% are above it.
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.
A flood study covers Alpine, from Grand River Conservation Authority: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Alpine: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
The flood study touching Alpine is Grand River Conservation Authority’s, dated 2018; its own map shows the zones street by street.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand River Regulatory Floodplain | Grand River Conservation Authority | 2018 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, Alpine 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 Alpine’s 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.
Earthquakes cost buildings in Alpine $0.022 per $1,000 a year
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
0.7 times the typical $0.030: Alpine’s $0.022 is ordinary.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Alpine, at $0.022, 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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 61% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Alpine.
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Alpine.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Area behind the earthquake risk figures: the city of Kitchener
Little radon around Alpine: 4% of area homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Alpine’s area, at 4%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Ontario has 4% over 200 Bq/m³; Alpine’s area has 4%, much the same.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Under 5% puts Alpine with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
Radon varies from house to house in Alpine, so the survey is a reason to test, not a result for yours.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Waterloo Health Unit
Where to get warnings in Alpine
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Alpine; 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 Alpine, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Alpine’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Country Hills 4,561 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Country Hills West 5,936 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Southdale 5,277 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Laurentian Hills 10,026 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Trillium Industrial Park 3,420 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Vanier 15,686 · 2.4 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
Nowhere around Alpine burns more: Country Hills, the closest rival, is low to its low.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Alpine faces
Practical steps for Alpine’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.
- 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 Alpine 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 Alpine.
- Wildfire counts one way. For Alpine, wildfire means how much nearby land burned in the past forty years, a one-way input that can pull Risk down and nothing more.
- Earthquakes are modelled. Seismic risk is NRCan’s model of yearly building losses from shaking, averaged over many years and given for Alpine’s census subdivision (a neighbourhood shows its city’s).
Questions about flooding and hazards in Alpine
How big is the earthquake risk in Alpine?
In NRCan’s seismic model, Alpine’s buildings lose $0.022 per $1,000 of value in an average year.
Is Alpine at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Alpine: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
Is radon a problem in Alpine?
The area’s survey found 4% of 101 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Alpine.
How is Alpine’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Alpine A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
Does Alpine flood?
There is flood mapping for Alpine on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
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).