Photo: Mosbo6 · CC BY-SA 4.0Byron faces fewer hazards than 90% of Canadian towns
Fire has left almost no mark near Byron: 0% of the land within 25 km since 1986, 0.000% a year. NRCan expects $0.020 of shaking damage a year per $1,000 of buildings in Byron, near the typical $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 1.8% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Byron grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Byron’s hazards
Four national sources, each read for Byron: earthquakes, radon, past fires and flood studies.
What Byron faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Byron: A
Seismic risk and radon set Byron’s grade, wildfire can drag it down, and flood mapping stays out of it.
Its place: #43 of 866 in Ontario and #347 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.
Few fires near Byron: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Byron’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
A burn rate of 0.000% a year keeps Byron in the low band (the typical Canadian town: 0.000%).
Only 0.4% of the land within 25 km of Byron is forest fuel, and 1% 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
Sioux Lookout has the highest burn rate in Ontario, 0.16% a year; around Byron, as around 638 of the 871 towns, it rounds to 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.
92% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are in the low band and 7.5% above it; Byron 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.
No flood study is listed for Byron
Flood studies whose area touches Byron, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
No flood study on the national inventory covers Byron; ask the municipality, which is the authority for its flood maps.
Towns with a flood study on file
Mapping in Ontario reaches 69% of towns, beside 58% across Canada, but not Byron.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Listed, not scored: a flood study proves a map exists, not that Byron floods.
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.”
Expected shaking damage in Byron: $0.020 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.
Byron’s $0.020 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); Byron, at $0.020, 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.
Byron sits mid-range among Canada’s 2,611 towns: 64% expect more shaking damage.
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 Byron’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). · Earthquake risk: one figure for all of the city of London
1.8% of homes tested around Byron are over the radon guideline
Health Canada’s survey of long-term home tests: the share above the 200 Bq/m³ guideline. · Area-wide: radon tests, counted over the Middlesex-London Health Unit
Fewer homes than usual test high around Byron: 1.8% against 6.6% for the typical Canadian town.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Ontario (4%), the area around Byron has fewer high tests: 1.8%.
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 Byron’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 Byron 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 Byron
Alerts for Byron 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. |
Evacuation orders for Byron come from the municipality or the province, while CWFIS maps fire danger every day.
Weather alerts (ECCC) · Alert Ready · Fire danger and active fires (CWFIS)
Hazards in the places around Byron
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Byron | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Oakridge 16,247 · 2.9 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Westmount 19,591 · 3.0 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| River Bend 5,930 · 3.1 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Talbot 8,085 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Southcrest 14,477 · 4.6 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Hyde Park 14,769 · 5.1 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
Among its neighbours Byron has the most fire on record (low); Oakridge follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Byron faces
Practical steps for Byron’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?
- Ask the municipality for flood maps.
- Are flood and wildfire insured?
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Wildfire counts one way. The wildfire figure is the share of land within 25 km of Byron’s homes burned each year from 1986 to 2025, past fire rather than a forecast, and it can only lower Risk.
- 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 Byron.
- 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 Byron’s.
- Radon is a survey. About 14,000 homes were tested across Canada in 2009–2011, and the share over the guideline for Byron is its health region’s, the survey’s design unit.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Byron
How is Byron’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hazard risk gives Byron A, weighing earthquakes and radon and counting wildfire only against it.
How big is the earthquake risk in Byron?
About $0.020 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Byron.
Is radon a problem in Byron?
The area’s survey found 1.8% of 110 tested homes above Health Canada’s guideline, so a three-month test is worth doing in Byron.
Does Byron flood?
The inventory has 0 studies for Byron, and an empty list isn’t a clean bill: the municipality holds any flood maps.
Is Byron at risk of wildfire?
Hardly at all on record: 0% of the land within 25 km of Byron since 1986, a low band, though small grass fires aren’t mapped.
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).