Flood mapping exists for Country Hills: 1 on record, latest by Grand River Conservation Authority
No wildfire is mapped within 25 km of Country Hills’ homes since 1986 (0% of the land, 0.000% a year). Shaking is about as much of a worry in Country Hills as in most places, at $0.022 a year per $1,000 of building value ($0.030 typical). Radon is lower than usual: 4% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Country Hills grades A− for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Country Hills’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Country Hills: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Country Hills faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Country Hills grades A− for hazard risk
Earthquake risk and radon make Country Hills’ 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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Wildfire is rare near Country Hills: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986, 0% within 5 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Country Hills’ residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Forty years of fire maps put Country Hills at 0.000% a year, low next to the typical Canadian town’s 0.000%.
With 1.6% forest fuel within 5 km and 3.3% within 25 km, the land around Country Hills gives a fire little to burn.
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
Of the 871 towns in Ontario, 638 have a burn rate that rounds to zero, Country Hills among them; Sioux Lookout leads at 0.16% a year.
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.
Country Hills 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.
A flood study covers Country Hills, from Grand River Conservation Authority: 1 on the inventory
Flood studies whose area touches Country Hills, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
For Country Hills the inventory points to Grand River Conservation Authority’s 2018 study, whose map is the one to check.
| 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, Country Hills 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 mapping is shown for Country Hills to be opened and checked, never turned into a grade.
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 Country Hills: $0.022 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.
With $0.022 of shaking damage a year per $1,000, Country Hills is about even with the typical $0.030 (0.7 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Country Hills, 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.
Country Hills’ earthquake risk lands near the centre of Canada’s range; 61% of the 2,611 towns 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 Country Hills’ 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). · Earthquake risk published for the city of Kitchener, not by town
Radon runs low around Country Hills: 4% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · The radon tests numbers here cover the Waterloo Health Unit
A lower share than most: 4% of tested homes around Country Hills, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Ontario has 4% over 200 Bq/m³; Country Hills’ 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.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Country Hills’ band, which holds 37%.
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.
A survey sample isn’t a map: any home in Country Hills can be high, and a three-month test is the only way to know.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Country Hills
Alerts for Country Hills come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and, for emergencies, Alert Ready.
| 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. |
Alert Ready carries evacuation orders for Country Hills to phones; CWFIS shows the day’s fire danger.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
How Country Hills’ neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country Hills | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Trillium Industrial Park 3,420 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Alpine 3,055 · 1.1 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Country Hills West 5,936 · 1.5 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Vanier 15,686 · 2.3 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Laurentian Hills 10,026 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Southdale 5,277 · 2.7 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
The neighbour with the most fire is Trillium Industrial Park (low), still no more than Country Hills (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Country Hills faces
Practical steps for Country Hills’ 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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Country Hills’ homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- 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 Country Hills.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Country Hills’ figure is its subdivision’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Country Hills is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Country Hills
Does Country Hills flood?
There is flood mapping for Country Hills on the national inventory, each study linked to its owner’s map, none of them graded.
How is Country Hills’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Country Hills A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Country Hills?
About $0.022 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Country Hills.
Is Country Hills at risk of wildfire?
The burned-area record shows next to nothing around Country Hills (0% within 25 km since 1986), so its band is low.
Is radon a problem in Country Hills?
4% of the 101 homes Health Canada tested around Country Hills topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
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).