Photo: JFVoll · CC BY-SA 4.0A flood study covers Auditorium: 1 on the national inventory, the newest from Grand River Conservation Authority
The burned-area map is nearly blank around Auditorium, 0% within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.022 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Auditorium, near the typical $0.030. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Auditorium a grade of A−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Auditorium’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Auditorium: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Auditorium faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Auditorium: A−
For Auditorium, Risk will be the average of earthquakes and radon, with wildfire added only if it makes the average worse.
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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Auditorium has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Auditorium’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.000% of the land a year around Auditorium, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Only 3.5% of the land within 25 km of Auditorium is forest fuel, and 1.2% close in.
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
Little or nothing burns around Auditorium in a typical year; 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario share that, and Sioux Lookout leads 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.
92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are in the low band and 7.5% above it; Auditorium is among the many where the yearly burn rate rounds to zero.
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 Auditorium, from Grand River Conservation Authority: 1 on the inventory
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Auditorium: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
A 2018 study by Grand River Conservation Authority covers Auditorium, and its map, not the inventory, shows the zones.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand River Regulatory Floodplain | Grand River Conservation Authority | 2018 | final |
Towns with a flood study on file
69% of towns in Ontario have a flood study, more than Canada’s 58%; Auditorium has one too.
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 Auditorium’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.
Expected shaking damage in Auditorium: $0.022 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Nothing unusual about Auditorium’s ground: $0.022 against a typical $0.030, 0.7 times.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
The typical town in Ontario expects $0.043 a year in shaking damage; Auditorium expects less, $0.022, and Alexandria the most, $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.
Neither high nor low for Canada: 61% of the 2,611 towns expect more damage than Auditorium.
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 loss is to Auditorium’s buildings alone, from ground shaking; infrastructure and secondary hazards are left out.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of Kitchener
Radon runs low around Auditorium: 4% of tested homes over the guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline.
Auditorium’s survey area reads 4% over the guideline, under the typical Canadian town’s 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon around Auditorium is ordinary for towns in Ontario: 4%, beside a median of 4%.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Few tests over the guideline: Auditorium shares the bottom band with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns, below the other 63%.
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 share describes the area, not a house: in Auditorium as anywhere, test to be sure.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Area behind the radon tests figures: the Waterloo Health Unit
Weather and fire alerts for Auditorium
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Auditorium; 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. |
For fires near Auditorium, the national fire information system maps danger and active fires daily; local authorities give any evacuation order.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Auditorium’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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auditorium | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Central Frederick 5,895 · 0.8 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| City Commercial Core 2,581 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Cedar Hill 3,190 · 1.0 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Mill Courtland Woodside Park 3,319 · 1.4 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Rosemount 6,169 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Mt. Hope Huron Park 5,174 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Auditorium has the most fire on record (low); Central Frederick follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Auditorium faces
Practical steps for Auditorium’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
- 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 Auditorium’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 Auditorium.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Auditorium’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Auditorium takes its 2007 health region’s share.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Auditorium
Is Auditorium at risk of wildfire?
Very little by the national record: Auditorium’s band is low, with 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, so wildfire doesn’t change its grade.
How is Auditorium’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Auditorium’s Hazard risk grade is A−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Auditorium?
4% of the 101 homes Health Canada tested around Auditorium topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Does Auditorium flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Auditorium; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Auditorium?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Auditorium $0.022 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
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).