Flood mapping exists for Idlewood: 1 on record, latest by Grand River Conservation Authority
Wildfire barely registers for Idlewood, at 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquake risk in Idlewood 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. Fewer homes than usual carry radon here, 4% over the guideline where the typical town has 6.6%. Hazard risk gives Idlewood a grade of A−, from earthquakes and radon alone.
What stands out about Idlewood’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Idlewood: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Idlewood faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Idlewood: A−
Earthquake risk and radon make Idlewood’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. Small fires and grass fires are largely missing from the national burned-area record.
Little of the land around Idlewood has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Idlewood’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Idlewood in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Only 4.6% of the land within 25 km of Idlewood is forest fuel, and 1.5% 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
To three decimals the burn rate around Idlewood is zero, as for 638 of the 871 towns in Ontario, while Sioux Lookout reaches 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.
The low band holds 92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns, and Idlewood 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.
Grand River Conservation Authority has mapped flooding for Idlewood (1 study)
Flood studies whose area touches Idlewood, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Grand River Conservation Authority studied flooding in an area that includes Idlewood (2018); open its map to see which streets lie in a flood zone.
| 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, Idlewood 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 studies don’t enter the grade; they are listed so you can open the official map for Idlewood.
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 Idlewood: $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.
Idlewood’s $0.022 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.7 times as much).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Earthquake risk in Ontario peaks in Alexandria ($0.21); Idlewood, 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.
Idlewood’s 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 Idlewood’s 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). · Not measured by town: earthquake risk (the city of Kitchener)
Radon runs low around Idlewood: 4% of tested homes over the guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline.
Radon runs below the typical Canadian town (6.6%) in Idlewood’s area, at 4%. Behind radon tests sits data gathered across the Waterloo Health Unit, with Idlewood one part of it.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
The typical town in Ontario has 4% over 200 Bq/m³; Idlewood’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.
63% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have a higher share of homes over 200 Bq/m³ than Idlewood’s 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 Idlewood 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 Idlewood
Alerts for Idlewood 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. |
Fire danger and active fires near Idlewood are mapped daily by the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System; evacuation orders come from the municipality or province.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Idlewood
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idlewood | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Grand River South 10,723 · 1.6 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Centreville Chicopee 10,291 · 1.7 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Stanley Park 8,721 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Heritage Park 6,369 · 1.8 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Grand River North 3,823 · 2.0 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
| Rosemount 6,169 · 2.8 km | Low | $0.022 | 4% | Yes |
Grand River South (low) has the heaviest fire record of Idlewood’s neighbours, and Idlewood (low) matches or beats it.
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Idlewood faces
Practical steps for Idlewood’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
- Wildfire counts one way. Wildfire is read from the national burned-area record around Idlewood’s homes since 1986, a history of fire that may lower Risk but never raises it.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Idlewood takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Idlewood.
- Earthquakes are modelled. NRCan models what earthquakes would cost buildings each year on average, subdivision by subdivision; Idlewood’s figure is its subdivision’s.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Idlewood
How is Idlewood’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Idlewood’s Hazard risk grade is A−, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
Is radon a problem in Idlewood?
4% of the 101 homes Health Canada tested around Idlewood topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
Is Idlewood at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Idlewood: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
Does Idlewood flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Idlewood; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Idlewood?
About $0.022 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Idlewood.
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).