Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Lindsay is on Canada’s flood inventory: 17 listed, led by Kawartha Conservation and City of Kawartha Lakes
Fire seldom reaches Lindsay: since 1986, 0% of the land within 25 km has burned (0.001% a year). Earthquake risk in Lindsay is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.026 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $0.030. Radon around Lindsay is ordinary for Canada: 6.1% of tested homes over the guideline (6.6% typical). Hazard risk gives Lindsay a grade of A−; its wildfire band pulls it down.
What stands out about Lindsay’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Lindsay: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Lindsay faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Lindsay grades A− for hazard risk
Seismic risk and radon set Lindsay’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #450 of 866 in Ontario and #881 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 Lindsay has burned: 0.1% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Past fire around Lindsay’s homes, from the national burned-area record, with the fuel within 5 km.
The yearly burn rate around Lindsay is 0.001%, low beside 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
About as much forest grows next to Lindsay’s homes (20% within 5 km) as across 25 km (22%).
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
In the top quarter in Ontario: Lindsay ranks 83rd of 871 at 0.001% a year, with Sioux Lookout first 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.
Beside 2,610 Canadian towns, Lindsay reads low, with 92% of them; only 7.5% rank higher.
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.
17 flood studies cover Lindsay, the newest from Kawartha Conservation and City of Kawartha Lakes
What Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists for Lindsay: who studied flooding and where to see their maps.
Kawartha Conservation and City of Kawartha Lakes and others have studied flooding in areas that include Lindsay: 17 studies, the latest from 2026.
| Study | By | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burnt River Between Kinmount Dam and Hillside Drive | Kawartha Conservation and City of Kawartha Lakes | 2026 | final |
| Durham Floodplain Mapping Update | Durham Region | 2024 | final |
| Gull and Burnt River Watersheds within Haliburton County | County of Haliburton | 2024 | final |
| County of Haliburton Floodplain Mapping Project | Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority | 2024 | final |
| Flood Plain Mapping Study Fenelon Falls South Tributary | Kawartha Conservation Authority | 2023 | final |
| McLarens Creek Flood Plain Mapping Study | Kawartha Conservation Authority | 2021 | final |
| Mariposa Brook | Kawartha Conservation Authority | 2020 | final |
| Bobcaygeon Tributary | Kawartha Conservation Authority | 2019 | final |
9 more studies on the inventory touch Lindsay.
Towns with a flood study on file
Lindsay is one of the 69% of towns in Ontario with a flood study on file; across Canada it is 58%.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Studies touching Lindsay run from the 1990s to the 2020s, with the most in the 2010s: 9 of 17.
Study dates as the NRCan inventory lists them, one count per study touching Lindsay.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Lindsay.
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 Lindsay: $0.026 a year per $1,000
Expected yearly building losses from earthquakes, from Natural Resources Canada’s model.
Earthquake losses in Lindsay, $0.026 per $1,000, are in line with the typical $0.030 (0.9 times).
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
Below the middle in Ontario: Lindsay’s $0.026 against a median of $0.043; Alexandria has $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.
Middle of the pack: 53% of Canada’s 2,611 towns have more earthquake risk than Lindsay.
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 Lindsay’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).
6.1% of homes tested around Lindsay are over the radon guideline
Long-term radon tests in homes across the survey area, against Health Canada’s guideline. · Shared with the rest of the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Heal health region: radon tests
Near the middle for radon: Lindsay’s area 6.1%, the typical Canadian town 6.6%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Radon runs higher around Lindsay than in most towns in Ontario: 6.1% over the guideline (4% is typical), 1% over 600.
Health Canada radon survey (2009–2011), by 2007 health region; medians of towns of 2,500 people or more.
Between 5% and 10% of tests over the guideline: Lindsay, and 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 26% are 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.
One home in Lindsay can be high while next door is low; a three-month test settles it.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011).
Weather and fire alerts for Lindsay
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Lindsay; 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 Lindsay, and listen to local authorities for orders.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Get ready for what Lindsay faces
Practical steps for Lindsay’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. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Lindsay takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- 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 Lindsay’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 Lindsay.
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Lindsay’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Lindsay
Is Lindsay at risk of wildfire?
Some, but Lindsay’s low band (0% of nearby land burned since 1986, latest 2025) is short of the level that counts.
Does Lindsay flood?
The inventory lists a study touching Lindsay; whether a given street floods is on that map, not in the grade.
How big is the earthquake risk in Lindsay?
NRCan’s model expects shaking to cost buildings in Lindsay $0.026 a year for every $1,000 of their value, on average over many years.
Is radon a problem in Lindsay?
The area’s survey found 6.1% of 98 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Lindsay.
How is Lindsay’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Lindsay A−, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
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).