Hyde Park faces fewer hazards than 90% of Canadian towns
Wildfire isn’t Hyde Park’s worry: 0% of the land within 25 km burned since 1986 (0.000% a year). Earthquake risk in Hyde Park is ordinary: NRCan’s model puts building losses at $0.020 a year per $1,000 of value, close to the typical town’s $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. Hyde Park grades A for hazard risk; wildfire is low here, so it earns no credit.
What stands out about Hyde Park’s hazards
For Hyde Park, from NRCan’s seismic model, Health Canada’s radon survey, the national burned-area record and the flood map inventory.
What Hyde Park faces
Each hazard against its own yardstick; meters run from low to high on that yardstick.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Radon
Flood study
Hazard risk in Hyde Park: A
Seismic risk and radon set Hyde Park’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. The burned-area record misses fires under about 10 ha and most grass and farm fires.
Little of the land around Hyde Park has burned: 0% within 5 km, 0% within 25 km since 1986
Fires mapped since 1986 around where Hyde Park’s residents live, and the fuel next to their homes.
Low by Canadian standards: 0.000% of the land a year around Hyde Park, 0.000% for the typical Canadian town.
Forest makes up 0.8% of the land within 5 km of Hyde Park and 0.4% within 25 km, little for a forest fire to run through.
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
Among the 871 towns in Ontario, Sioux Lookout burns fastest (0.16% a year); Hyde Park is with the 638 near 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.
Only 7.5% of Canada’s 2,610 towns are above the low band, which holds 92%; Hyde Park, at a rounded zero, is far from them.
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 Hyde Park
Flood studies whose area touches Hyde Park, from NRCan’s inventory, each linked to its owner.
Canada’s Flood Map Inventory lists no study whose area touches Hyde Park, which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped.
Towns with a flood study on file
Missing from a well-mapped province: Hyde Park has no study, where 69% of towns in Ontario have one against 58% nationally.
NRCan Canada Flood Map Inventory: a study footprint touching the town’s boundary; towns of 2,500 people or more.
Nothing here counts toward Risk; the studies are pointers to the maps their owners keep for Hyde Park.
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.”
Earthquakes cost buildings in Hyde Park $0.020 per $1,000 a year
NRCan’s seismic risk model: the damage shaking is expected to do to buildings each year, on average over many years.
Hyde Park’s $0.020 is close to the typical town’s $0.030 (0.7 times as much).
For earthquake risk, the only official count covers all of the city of London, Hyde Park included.
Shaking damage a year per $1,000 of building value
At $0.020, Hyde Park is below the typical town in Ontario ($0.043); Alexandria is highest at $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.
Around half of Canada’s 2,611 towns expect more shaking damage than Hyde Park (64%).
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).
What a quake does after the shaking, fire, landslides, tsunami, falls outside NRCan’s figure for Hyde Park.
Natural Resources Canada, Canada’s Seismic Risk Model (2022), by census subdivision (2016 boundaries; a few 2021 subdivisions take their residents’ mean).
Little radon around Hyde Park: 1.8% of area 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 Hyde Park’s area, at 1.8%.
Tested homes over 200 Bq/m³
Over 600 Bq/m³
Against the typical town in Ontario (4%), the area around Hyde Park 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.
Under 5% puts Hyde Park with 37% of Canada’s 2,611 towns; 63% have more high tests.
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.
Whatever Hyde Park’s area share, the reading that matters is your own home’s, over a winter.
Health Canada, Cross-Canada Survey of Radon Concentrations in Homes (2009–2011). · Radon tests: the Middlesex-London Health Unit
Where to get warnings in Hyde Park
Environment and Climate Change Canada issues the weather alerts for Hyde Park; 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 Hyde Park, 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 Hyde Park’s neighbours compare on hazards
The same four hazards for the places next door.
| Town | Wildfire | Quake $/1,000 | Radon | Flood study |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyde Park | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Medway 18,922 · 2.1 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Oakridge 16,247 · 2.5 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| West London 24,322 · 3.5 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| River Bend 5,930 · 4.2 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Masonville 10,359 · 4.4 km | Low | $0.020 | 1.8% | None listed |
| Middlesex Centre 21,689 · 4.8 km | Low | $0.018 | 1.8% | Yes |
Among its neighbours Hyde Park has the most fire on record (low); Medway follows (low).
Radon is the survey area’s figure, so neighbours in one area share it.
Get ready for what Hyde Park faces
Practical steps for Hyde Park’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
- 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 Hyde Park.
- Radon is a survey. Health Canada’s survey tested some 14,000 homes over three months; until postal-area boundaries are loaded, Hyde Park takes its 2007 health region’s share.
- Earthquakes are modelled. The earthquake figure is an expected loss, not a forecast, worked out by NRCan for each census subdivision, Hyde Park’s included.
- Wildfire counts one way. Burned land within 25 km of where people live, averaged over 1986–2025 and checked for fuel near homes, is the measure; it looks back, not ahead, and only ever counts against Hyde Park.
Questions about flooding and hazards in Hyde Park
Is Hyde Park at risk of wildfire?
No meaningful wildfire history near Hyde Park: 0% of nearby land since 1986, band low.
Does Hyde Park flood?
No study on Canada’s Flood Map Inventory covers Hyde Park (0), which doesn’t mean it has never been mapped, so ask the municipality.
Is radon a problem in Hyde Park?
1.8% of the 110 homes Health Canada tested around Hyde Park topped the guideline; your own house needs its own test.
How big is the earthquake risk in Hyde Park?
About $0.020 a year per $1,000 of building value, NRCan’s long-run expectation for Hyde Park.
How is Hyde Park’s Hazard risk Grade worked out?
Hyde Park’s Hazard risk grade is A, built on earthquakes and radon with a one-sided wildfire input.
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).